SPCX Slides 2% to $151.50 as SpaceX Bags NASA StarBurst Deal and $22B Nasdaq-100 Jolt Looms 🚀

Shares of SPCX slipped more than 2% to $151.50 on Monday, even as SpaceX secured a new contract with NASA to launch the StarBurst satellite mission on a Falcon 9 rocket, a decision announced September 17 and scheduled no earlier than 2028. The mission adds another government-backed flight to SpaceX's commercial launch manifest and reinforces the company's position with institutional customers.

NASA selected SpaceX under the agency's launch services contract framework, with StarBurst designated as a small-satellite astrophysics payload aimed at detecting cosmic gamma-ray emissions. The award was disclosed alongside broader NASA documentation, and officials said it will be executed on a standard Falcon 9 configuration. SpaceX has not disclosed the contract value.

Trading in SPCX, which is structured to track the performance of private companies including SpaceX, remained active as investors weighed the new NASA task order against an upcoming Nasdaq-100 index reweighting. Index providers confirmed that SpaceX's inclusion in the Nasdaq-100 will increase its weighting, a change analysts said could trigger up to $22 billion in mechanical stock purchases from index funds and ETFs tracking the benchmark.

Market participants also cited broader profit-taking in recent sessions, with SPCX having rallied earlier in the quarter on a series of contract wins and launch milestones for SpaceX, including Starlink deployments and Falcon Heavy missions for the Department of Defense. The tokenized equity trades over-the-counter and remains closely correlated with reported private-market valuations for SpaceX.

In a statement, NASA said the StarBurst award was made "following a competitive launch services evaluation," and that the mission is "expected to launch no earlier than 2028 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from a U.S. launch site." SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the contract or its Nasdaq-100 reweighting impact.