SpaceX stocks: Why is Elon Musk-owned Space Exploration Technologies Corp-SPCX share price at Nasdaq down?

SpaceX stocks are set for a tough trading on Thursday. Elon Musk-owned Space Exploration Technologies Corp share price was down by over two per cent to USD 148.72 in pre-market today. SPCX stock closed at USD 152.16, down by nearly three per cent or 4.38 points at Nasdaq. SpaceX made spectacular stock market debut on Nasdaq earlier in June this year.

This comes as Ukraine said on Wednesday that Elon Musk's SpaceX had restricted "military-grade" Starlink services, hampering Ukrainian drone strike missions and air defenses.

SpaceX


Earlier in October, Elon Musk's SpaceX struck a deal to acquire a nationwide low-band spectrum portfolio, posing a direct challenge to US wireless companies.

Starlink, the main profit engine of SpaceX, is a satellite internet network of more than 11,000 satellites that beam broadband service directly to user terminals about the size of a folded newspaper. Its roughly 13 million subscribers range from households and hikers to shipping companies and major airlines.

Since launching its first Starlink satellites in 2019 aboard reusable SpaceX rockets, the company has built a vast low-Earth-orbit constellation that blankets much of the planet, delivering faster connections than traditional communications satellites, which typically operate much farther from Earth and in far smaller numbers.

Starlink gave Ukraine a critical communications advantage early in the war, reshaping how militaries operate on the battlefield. But Musk has restricted Starlink for certain military uses while highlighting Starshield, a more secure network developed for government and military missions.

Ukraine's complaint has drawn renewed attention to the distinction between Starlink, SpaceX's commercial satellite internet service, and Starshield, a military version developed for the Pentagon. While Musk has said the two systems are separate, in many cases they share the same underlying satellite technology.

"Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government," Musk said on Wednesday in a post on X, adding that any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military or the president. "Starlink is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX. Usage of Starlink is limited to civilian or defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company."