Al Root

Hope for so-called halo effects from SpaceX's eleventh test of its Starship launch system, scheduled for late Monday, is boosting shares of space-technology startups.

Some Starship test launches attract millions of viewers. Investors should tune in, too. Coming into Monday trading, shares of launch and satellite service provider Rocket Lab, communications satellite operator AST SpaceMobile, moon technology company Intuitive Machines, Earth imaging company Planet Labs, and components supplier Redwire were up an average of 125% year to date.

Shares of the five were up 6% on average in early trading on Monday. Some of that might be expectations regarding SpaceX, but most stocks are higher after Friday's China-U.S. trade scare. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 1.5% and 1.1% in early trading.

All five stocks enjoy strong support from Wall Street. The average Buy-rating ratio for those shares is about 80%, according to FactSet, while the average ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 55%.

Planet Labs, Rocket Lab, and AST, however, have average analyst price targets below current share prices. Those three have gone to the moon, and analysts have struggled to keep up.

The launch window for Starship, the largest rocket-launch system ever developed, opens at 6:15 p.m. Central time, or 7:15 p.m. Eastern. A webcast of the launch will go live about 30 minutes before the scheduled takeoff.

Starship's booster stage is roughly 240 feet tall, while the upper stage is about 160 feet tall. Size matters because a larger rocket means more cargo capacity, which can lower the costs of reaching space. More capacity and lower costs are key to SpaceX's ultimate goal to put humans on Mars.

There have been amazing feats, and hiccups, since test launches of the Starship began in April 2023. While SpaceX has caught the lower half of the rocket, the booster stage, on its return to Earth at its launch tower, allowing it to easily be reused, a Starship recently exploded on a testing stand, damaging SpaceX's infrastructure.

The tenth test was a relative success. SpaceX deployed test satellites for Starlink, its space-based broadband product, from the bay of Starship's upper stage. The upper stage successfully re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and splashed down in the Indian Ocean.

For the eleventh test, SpaceX will reuse a lower-stage booster. The upper stage will attempt to deploy test satellites again, while also relighting a rocket engine in space. Eventually, SpaceX hopes to reuse the upper and lower stages of Starship. It hasn't attempted to land an upper stage back on Earth yet, though. The upper stage for this test is slated to touch down in the Indian Ocean.

SpaceX, of course, is one of one. Its Falcon 9 rocket has launched more than 125 times so far in 2025, accounting for more than half of all orbital launches this year. The company, valued at roughly $400 billion, is one of the most valuable private companies on the planet.

It's hard for regular investors to invest in SpaceX, but its success has enabled many space startups to get access to capital and grow. Space stocks have been popular in 2025 as the Trump administration is looking to commercial providers to provide services to NASA, instead of having NASA build and operate space systems on its own.

The success of space startups doesn't entirely depend on SpaceX's continued success, but it doesn't hurt.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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October 13, 2025 11:25 ET (15:25 GMT)

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