SpaceX's Dual Track: Crew-13 Readies for Launch as Starlink V3 Satellites Come Online
Published on 09/29/2026 at 12:20 | Editorial boerse-global.de
SpaceX is firing on multiple cylinders at once. Even as the company gradually redirects resources toward its next-generation Starship program, its workhorse Falcon 9 line continues to churn out missions at a relentless clip — and the market is taking notice.
On Thursday, October 1, SpaceX and NASA aim to launch the Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station. A Falcon 9 is slated to lift the Dragon capsule from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 11:10 a.m. local time, with the following Friday reserved as a backup date. It marks the 13th operational crewed Dragon flight to the ISS and follows hard on the heels of a busy stretch for government customers: just last Saturday, the USSF-385 mission sent the company's third national security payload aloft for the U.S. Space Force within a single month.
That cadence underscores how deeply SpaceX is embedded in the institutional U.S. launch market. The Falcon 9 remains the undisputed standard for orbital access, whether the payload is astronauts or military hardware, and those recurring contracts underpin dependable revenue streams. The stock traded up 1.1% at EUR 129.42 on the day, a reflection of that confidence in operational execution.
Starship's Growing Share of the Spotlight
Behind the scenes, management is engineering a far-reaching transition. According to media reports, SpaceX has begun shifting resources toward the Starship program and plans to phase out the Falcon 9 and Dragon systems over the long term. Company President Gwynne Shotwell said at a conference appearance that Starship is simply better suited to achieving SpaceX's long-range objectives, making the reallocation of capacity a logical step.
The pivot is strategically coherent but comes with operational hurdles. The fully reusable heavy-lift vehicle is viewed as the linchpin for commercial ambitions in space, and NASA is counting on a modified variant as a future lunar lander under its Artemis program. The generational handover, in other words, is a process prone to setbacks — not a switch that gets flipped overnight.
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Flight 14 Delivers a Working Satellite Fleet
The Starship program notched a tangible win of its own. All 26 of the new Starlink V3 satellites deployed during Flight 14 are functioning flawlessly, according to media reports, bringing the first operational units of the next-generation constellation into SpaceX's existing network. The new satellites are expected to meaningfully expand the capacity of its orbital high-speed internet service.
The payload reached orbit under demanding circumstances. During the 8:46 a.m. local time liftoff from the Starbase facility in Texas, a Raptor vacuum engine failed on ascent. Flight control opted to press on regardless. Roughly 26 minutes after liftoff, the vehicle successfully completed its orbital insertion burn using just one remaining engine. After two orbits, the ship initiated its braking maneuver about two hours and twelve minutes into the mission. Reaching orbit and deploying all 26 payloads demonstrated the heavy-lift system's operational resilience under real-world conditions — an important step toward activating substantially larger payloads in space on shorter timelines.
Ahead of the bell, SpaceX shares changed hands at EUR 128.24, roughly 7.7% above their 50-day average of EUR 119.10.
Wall Street Sees Pricing Power Through 2027
Observers are growing more optimistic about the economics of space and data infrastructure. Mizuho Securities said Friday that SpaceX can defend its premium pricing for computing capacity through 2027. On Thursday, media reports also pointed to positive ratings on the stock, driven by growth momentum in artificial intelligence and an attractive risk-reward profile.
Long-term government contracts provide parallel support for the commercial foundation. On September 18, NASA modified an existing agreement with the company by $946 million, adding three more crewed flights to the International Space Station and extending SpaceX's astronaut missions through 2030. The total value of the arrangement now stands at $5.92 billion across 17 flights.
That combination — firm government orders on one side, a commercial rollout of modern satellite fleets on the other — forms the load-bearing structure for the years ahead. With the Falcon 9 still delivering crewed and national security missions on schedule, SpaceX retains both the financial runway and the time it needs to bring the technology of the next decade to market maturity.
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