SpaceX stock in focus after China rocket milestone, share unlock ahead

SpaceX stock in focus after China rocket milestone, share unlock ahead

Pras Subramanian · Senior Reporter

Wed, August 19, 2026 at 4:45 PM GMT+3 2 min read

• SPCX -3.80%

SpaceX (SPCX) shares are in focus on Wednesday after a Chinese company landed a rocket booster for the first time, just as a new share unlock adds to the pressure.

The stock slipped further in overnight trade but recovered slightly in early trade. This comes after SpaceX's $135 IPO price was recovered on Aug. 10, the first close above the offering price since mid-July.

Potentially weighing on shares is news that Chinese startup LandSpace on Tuesday landed the first stage of its Zhuque-3 rocket on a pad at the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone in Northwest China, the first time a Chinese company has recovered an orbital-class booster on land.

The rocket's upper stage delivered satellites to orbit on the vehicle's second-ever flight. Its December 2025 debut reached orbit but lost the booster to what LandSpace described as abnormal combustion during descent.

The milestone narrows the competitive gap that set SpaceX apart from every other launch provider on Earth, including US rivals like Rocket Lab. The Chinese Zhuque-3 is a 216-foot-tall rocket that can lift 40,350 pounds of cargo to low Earth orbit, versus the 230-foot SpaceX Falcon 9's and its 50,265-pound payload.

But SpaceX's track record speaks for itself. SpaceX has landed boosters more than 600 times since 2015; LandSpace has now done it once. That may be why the stock reaction is still muted, however. Reusable rocketry is no longer solely a SpaceX achievement.

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Bulls will argue that SpaceX's lead in reflight volume, cost per launch, and Starlink revenue puts it comfortably ahead of its rivals.

In addition to competitive news, a structural change is bearish for SpaceX shares. Around 319 million shares held by early employees and investors become eligible to trade on Thursday, the Day 70 tranche in a staggered lockup that will release about 88% of SpaceX's 13 billion shares through 2027.

The stock surprisingly withstood a big unlock earlier this month. On Aug. 6, up to 911.5 million shares became tradeable, and the stock absorbed it and rose 6%, a massively bullish move.

The larger supply tests are still coming, with a 1.3 billion-share tranche set to unlock around SpaceX's third-quarter earnings in early November, followed by the 180-day expiry in December. CEO Elon Musk's 6.42 billion shares stay locked until June 2027.

Pras Subramanian is Lead Transportation Reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on X and on Instagram.

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