SPCX: Starship Nails Landing, Orbital Data Center Timeline Tightens

Starship’s second test of its newest design ended with a successful landing on September 7, while Elon Musk moved up the timeline for SpaceX’s orbital AI data center program and a prominent fund manager pointed to SPCX as a key Q2 driver.

Key points

• Starship’s 13th overall test flight stuck the landing, the second consecutive success for the newest vehicle design.
• Musk announced on X that the first AI satellites, powered exclusively by NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 chips, will launch in Q4 2027 and reach “significant scale” in 2028, an accelerated schedule from prior guidance.
• Baron Asset Fund rose 18.98% in Q2 2026, crediting strong stock selection in SpaceX as a key contributor.
• A Yahoo Finance analysis laid out the bull and bear cases for SPCX, with the author concluding they are currently passing on the stock.
• Motley Fool ran a scenario piece suggesting the risk-to-reward profile may appeal to aggressive long-term investors at current prices.

What does the Starship landing mean for SpaceX’s roadmap?

The 13th Starship test flight, described as the second test of SpaceX’s newest design, successfully landed the vehicle. That result matters on two fronts. First, NASA’s Artemis moon program depends on a crewed Starship variant as the lunar lander, so consecutive successful tests reduce schedule risk for that contract. Second, and more directly tied to the investment thesis, the orbital data center ambition requires Starship to fly frequently and cheaply. Two successful landings in a row on the newest design is a meaningful operational data point, even if the vehicle still has a long certification path ahead.

Has Musk tightened the orbital AI timeline again?

Yes, and notably so. Bloomberg reported that Musk posted on X that SpaceX, working with NVIDIA, has designed a “space-optimized Vera Rubin NVL72 system.” The first AI satellites carrying these chips are now targeted for Q4 2027, with “significant scale” expected in 2028. The Vera Rubin NVL72 is NVIDIA’s next-generation rack-scale AI platform, and a space-hardened variant would represent a meaningful engineering effort by both companies. Investors should note that Musk has moved this timeline before, and the phrase “significant scale” is not defined in quantitative terms in the available reporting. Still, the specificity of the chip partnership and the named architecture adds more substance to the announcement than prior high-level references to the program.

How is SPCX showing up in institutional portfolios?

Baron Asset Fund’s Q2 2026 shareholder letter, published via Seeking Alpha, reported an 18.98% gain for the quarter, with SpaceX cited as a key driver of outperformance relative to its benchmark. The letter does not appear to disclose a specific position size or price target based on the available summary, but the attribution is direct. For SPCX watchers, institutional fund letters are one of the few public windows into how professional managers are sizing and justifying the position, given SpaceX’s limited traditional financial disclosures compared to fully public peers.

Is the bull-versus-bear debate settling anywhere?

Not particularly. A Yahoo Finance piece published Sunday walked through both sides and landed on “ignore for now,” while Motley Fool framed the same stock as potentially attractive for investors with higher risk tolerance and a one-year-plus horizon. The split is not surprising. SPCX has run hard, with the stock reclaiming a $2 trillion market cap earlier this month, and valuation-sensitive analysts will find the current multiple difficult to justify on near-term fundamentals alone. The orbital data center and Starship programs are the core of the long-term case, and both saw positive newsflow today, but neither is generating revenue at scale yet.

Nothing in this article constitutes investment advice. This site is independent and not affiliated with SpaceX.