From a historic launch to a trillion-dollar valuation, Musk’s Tuesday is a game changer
On any given day, SpaceX moves fast. But Tuesday, May 12, 2026, is shaping up to be something else entirely — a convergence of launches, financial bombshells, and record-breaking engineering that captures exactly why the company has become the most consequential force in modern aerospace.
SpaceX Sends Science to the Stars
A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 7:16 p.m. EDT, carrying the CRS-34 Dragon cargo spacecraft loaded with roughly 6,500 pounds of supplies, science experiments, and crew provisions bound for the International Space Station.
The mission is SpaceX‘s 34th commercial resupply run under its NASA contract, and it carries a scientific payload that reaches far beyond the routine. Among the experiments aboard is a study on bone scaffolds derived from wood, aimed at developing new treatments for osteoporosis — a disease that affects tens of millions worldwide. Researchers are also studying how bacterial behavior shifts in orbit compared to ground-based simulators, and monitoring how charged particles interact with biological systems in microgravity.
Autonomous docking with the ISS Harmony module’s forward port is scheduled for Thursday, May 14 at around 9:50 a.m. ET, approximately 38 hours after liftoff. The Dragon capsule flying this mission, designated C209, is completing its sixth flight — the first Cargo Dragon spacecraft to reach that milestone.
SpaceX and the $1.5 Trillion Question
While the rocket was still being prepped on the pad, Wall Street was buzzing about something far more earthshaking than a cargo delivery. SpaceX is moving toward what could be the largest initial public offering in financial history, and the number being circulated is staggering.
Bloomberg reported that SpaceX is pressing ahead with plans for a public offering aimed at mid-to-late 2026, with expectations of raising more than $30 billion at a valuation that could reach $1.5 trillion. If that figure holds, it would surpass Saudi Aramco’s 2019 listing — currently the largest IPO on record — and place SpaceX among the most valuable publicly traded companies on the planet from the moment it opens.
Morningstar estimates the company generated nearly $16 billion in revenue and $7.5 billion in EBITDA in 2025, with Starlink — its satellite internet division — accounting for roughly 67% of total company revenue. Starlink now serves over nine million subscribers across more than 150 countries, having doubled its subscriber base for two consecutive years.
The engine behind all of this is clear. Starlink has shifted SpaceX from a launch provider into a global communications operator — and that transformation is precisely what makes the IPO valuation defensible to some analysts and alarming to others. The investment case rests on launch dominance, Starlink as a global communications network, defense and government infrastructure, and the future role of space-based infrastructure for AI and data. At a valuation above $1.5 trillion, investors would already be paying for several future scenarios at once.
Some on Wall Street are raising a different kind of flag altogether. Financial analysts have begun debating whether SpaceX — alongside other high-profile offerings expected in 2026 — signals a late-stage market peak rather than a new beginning. The concern is familiar— when the biggest deals in a generation all arrive at once, history suggests caution may be warranted.
Starship V3 Stands Taller Than Anything Before It
If the IPO buzz isn’t enough, SpaceX is also preparing to launch the most powerful rocket ever assembled. SpaceX conducted a successful launch rehearsal with the Starship V3 vehicle at its Starbase site in South Texas on May 11, a milestone centered on loading massive quantities of liquid oxygen and liquid methane propellant into the fully stacked rocket for the first time.
When stacked, Starship V3 stands 408.1 feet tall — about 4 feet taller than its predecessor — and can carry more than 100 tons to low Earth orbit in a fully reusable configuration, compared to roughly 35 tons for the previous version. Each Raptor 3 engine produces roughly 280 tons of thrust, and with all 33 firing simultaneously from the Super Heavy booster, the combined output exceeds anything previously produced by a rocket in history.
Flight 12, targeting as early as Friday, May 15, would mark the debut of the Starship V3 configuration and also the first launch from the newly completed Pad 2 at Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas. The stakes are enormous. SpaceX’s Starship is central to NASA’s Artemis program, which intends to return astronauts to the lunar surface, and the V3’s expanded payload capacity directly reduces the number of orbital refueling missions required before a Moon-bound flight can depart low Earth orbit.
A Night Launch and a Spy Satellite
The day’s activity didn’t begin with CRS-34. Late Monday night, SpaceX successfully launched the NROL-172 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, delivering intelligence-gathering satellites into orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office. It was the company’s 55th launch of 2026 — a pace that no other launch provider on the planet comes close to matching.
That cadence is itself a statement. SpaceX has spent years building the infrastructure, the reusable hardware, and the operational rhythm to make frequent launches routine. In 2025, SpaceX flew 165 Falcon 9 missions and accounted for roughly 52% of all global orbital launches that year. The numbers speak to a company that has not just entered the aerospace industry but reshaped it entirely.
Tuesday is simply the latest proof of that.