SpaceX Successfully Launches Falcon 9 with Starlink Satellites Amid Private Equity Status

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 7:04 p.m. PDT on Sunday, deploying 28 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. The launch, visible across Las Vegas as a luminous arc, marked the 124th Falcon 9 mission this year and tied September with May as the busiest month for SpaceX operations. Booster B1063 completed its 28th flight, a testament to the company's reusability strategy, landing on the drone ship 'Of Course I Still Love You' after supporting missions like NASA’s DART and Transporter-7.

Despite its operational milestones, SpaceX remains a privately held entity, barring retail investors from purchasing shares on public exchanges. The absence of a ticker symbol underscores Elon Musk’s preference for controlled capital allocation, contrasting with the speculative fervor surrounding publicly traded space-sector ETFs. With 88 Starlink missions completed in 2025 alone—11 in September—SpaceX’s dominance in low-Earth orbit infrastructure grows even as its equity stays inaccessible to mainstream markets.