Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) just launched three rockets in less than 13 hours, a pretty incredible feat that has sent the company’s stock up 6% so far in Friday trading. The company sent four astronauts to the International Space Station, launched a batch of commercial payloads into orbit and launched a classified satellite for US intelligence. Did you miss AI’s “Act 1”? The second act could be 15 times bigger. Most investors think they missed the AI boat because they didn’t buy Nvidia in 2005. But according to our analysts, we’re only at the end of “Act 1”: the R&D phase. “Act 2” is the global launch. Continue » So what does all this mean for SpaceX’s business and its investors? A quick trip to the space station First was NASA’s Crew-13 mission. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Florida with four astronauts in SpaceX’s Dragon capsule on Thursday, October 1. The crew reached the International Space Station in less than eight hours, the fastest trip there by an American spacecraft. “Yes, we got lucky this time,” said NASA’s Science and Dragon program director Julianna Scheiman, adding: “That’s not to say it couldn’t happen again, and if we put the space station in exactly the right place for the right launch, it could be this or even shorter durations, but it’s close to as fast as it could be.” The crew will spend approximately six months aboard the station. The rocket’s first stage booster successfully returned to Earth, landed and can be used once again. Commercial payloads and an AI prototype The next flight, Transporter-18, carried 130 commercial payloads into orbit from California, including an AI prototype from Google’s Project Suncatcher, a program designed to test the feasibility of space data centers. Of note, the reusable Falcon 9 booster was on its 25th flight. A classified mission for US intelligence The final launch used SpaceX’s largest Falcon Heavy rocket to carry a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, the agency responsible for US intelligence satellites. Obviously, much of the mission was kept secret, but it marked the first Falcon Heavy launch for the agency. SpaceX landed both side boosters in Florida. Their recovered propellants in the three launches of the day totaled four. SpaceX by the numbers While the focus of the past 24 hours has been on the company’s launch business, as of its most recent quarter, Connectivity, the segment that includes Starlink, remains the real source of revenue. The unit generated $4.3 billion in revenue and $1.7 billion in operating profits. Space, on the other hand, reported an operating loss of $542 million on $962 million in revenue. Of course, that’s a bit misleading. When the company sends Starlink satellites on its own rockets, the space unit does not record income from the work. Connectivity marks the launch costs on your balance sheet and spreads the expense over time through depreciation. The net effect is that Starlink looks much more profitable than it would be on its own, at the cost of making Launch look less so. Finally, SpaceX’s artificial intelligence unit posted a loss of $1.3 billion on $2.6 billion in sales. However, the landscape here is changing rapidly with multiple major IT contracts coming online. Deals to lease its considerable computing power with Anthropic, Alphabet and other clients could generate up to $3.4 billion a month once everything is up and running. The profitability of this computing push depends on when the company can deliver the promised computing and how much it spends on it. The unit alone spent $15.8 billion on capital expenditures last quarter. Should You Buy Space Exploration Technologies Stock Right Now? Before you buy shares of Space Exploration Technologies, consider this: the analyst team at Motley Fool Stock Advisor just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now… and Space Exploration Technologies wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut are built for long-term growth and could produce monster returns in the years to come. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you would have $365,910!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you would have $1,418,530!* That performance is why people listen. With a track record of outperforming the S&P 500 4x, Stock Advisor offers a clear advantage. Don’t miss the latest top 10 list, available on Stock Advisor, and join a community of investors built for the long term. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of October 2, 2026. Johnny Rice has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions and recommends Alphabet. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. SpaceX just launched 3 rockets in 13 hours. Here’s what investors need to know right now. was originally published by The Motley Fool
