SpaceX’s Starlink network passed 11,000 satellites in orbit as of August 19, 2026 — roughly two-thirds of all active satellites currently circling Earth, according to KeepTrack.space, a satellite-tracking site. The milestone came during a busy stretch for SpaceX: its first earnings report as a newly public company had arrived earlier in August, while its stock had slipped back toward its IPO price.
Key facts
- Starlink satellite count: over 11,000 in orbit as of August 19, 2026 — about two-thirds of all active satellites
- SpaceX’s 100th orbital mission of 2026, reached in about 231 days
- Q2 2026 revenue: $7.8 billion, up 92% year-over-year; net loss narrowed to $541 million
- Starlink subscribers: about 12 million, roughly double the year-earlier figure
- IPO: priced at $135 per share in June 2026, trading on Nasdaq as SPCX
- Musk holds more than 80% of SpaceX’s voting rights
Timeline
- May 22, 2026 — Starship Flight 12’s Super Heavy booster had a problem during its return-to-launch-site burn, triggering a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) mishap investigation.
- June 2026 — SpaceX’s IPO priced shares at $135; the stock jumped about 19% on its Nasdaq debut under the ticker SPCX.
- July 24, 2026 — Starship Flight 13 launches from Starbase, Texas, returning to flight after the pause.
- August 4, 2026 — SpaceX reports its first quarterly earnings as a public company.
- August 6, 2026 — A first IPO lockup expires, freeing 911.5 million insider-held shares.
- August 12, 2026 — A second lockup batch of about 319 million shares becomes tradable.
- August 15, 2026 — SpaceX launches two Falcon 9 missions from opposite U.S. coasts about 38 minutes apart, a new turnaround record.
- August 19, 2026 — Starlink passes 11,000 satellites, about two-thirds of all active satellites in orbit.
- August 20, 2026 — A Starlink launch is automatically aborted about 30 seconds before liftoff; Musk separately says the Starship catch attempt will likely happen “in a few months.”
A record pace of launches
The Starlink milestone came alongside SpaceX’s 100th orbital mission of 2026, reached in about 231 days — itself part of a launch pace the company has been setting all year. On August 15, SpaceX flew two separate Falcon 9 missions from opposite U.S. coasts about 38 minutes apart: the classified USSF-366 mission for the Space Force out of Vandenberg, California, and a satellite-replenishment flight for Globalstar from Cape Canaveral, Florida — a turnaround SpaceX described as a new record.
Not every launch went to plan. On August 20, a Starlink mission carrying 29 satellites was automatically aborted about 30 seconds before liftoff from Cape Canaveral. SpaceX did not say what triggered the abort, and the flight had not been rescheduled as of August 22, 2026.
First earnings as a public company
SpaceX reported its first quarterly results as a publicly traded company on August 4. Revenue for the second quarter of 2026 came in at $7.8 billion, up 92% from $4.1 billion a year earlier and above Wall Street’s roughly $6.9 billion estimate. The company’s net loss narrowed to $541 million, down from about $1 billion a year prior, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose 191% to $3.5 billion.
Starlink’s connectivity business drove much of the growth, bringing in about $4.3 billion and adding 1.7 million net subscribers, for a total of about 12 million subscribers — roughly double the year-earlier figure. SpaceX’s newer AI and data-center computing business grew faster in percentage terms, with revenue up roughly 247% to about $2.6 billion. On the earnings call, the company said it plans to build its AI data centers exclusively with Nvidia chips. Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said separately that SpaceX is on pace to generate revenue at a $100 billion annual rate by the end of the year.
Capital expenditures for the quarter were about $18.4 billion, more than six times the year-earlier figure, with roughly $15.8 billion of it tied to AI infrastructure.
Starship: one strong flight, an uncertain next one
SpaceX’s Starship program returned to flight on July 24 with Flight 13, launching from Starbase, Texas, after a monthslong pause. The pause followed a May 22 mishap on Flight 12, when the Super Heavy booster suffered a problem during its return-to-launch-site burn; the FAA required a mishap investigation before allowing further flights, and closed that investigation ahead of Flight 13.
Flight 13 was largely successful. At liftoff, the booster’s 33 engines all fired cleanly, though during the landing burn only about 5 of the roughly 13 engines required for that maneuver appeared to reignite, resulting in a harder-than-planned splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The upper stage fared better: it deployed 20 satellites from SpaceX’s newer Starlink V3 generation, relit an engine while in space, and made what the company called its softest splashdown yet off Western Australia.
SpaceX is now preparing Flight 14, using a new booster and ship, and hopes to attempt something it has never done before: catching the returning upper stage with the launch tower’s mechanical arms, rather than landing it in the ocean. The attempt depends on FAA approval. Elon Musk had earlier floated the end of August as a target; on August 20 he said the attempt would now probably happen “in a few months” instead. No confirmed launch date has been set for Flight 14 itself.
The stock, and who controls it
SpaceX’s June 2026 initial public offering priced shares at $135 and the stock jumped about 19% on its first day of trading, debuting on Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX. Since then, the shares have given back much of that gain: various trackers put the stock roughly between $134 and $140 in the days before publication, well below its 52-week high near $225.64 and near that $135 IPO price. Part of the pressure has come from lockup expirations — the standard period after an IPO when company insiders are barred from selling their shares. Mid-August coverage also highlighted new Chinese reusable-rocket competition headlines, though the available reporting does not establish that China has overtaken or meaningfully beaten SpaceX. A first lockup expired August 6, freeing 911.5 million insider-held shares for potential sale. A second batch of about 319 million shares became tradable August 12. Both additions added significantly to the stock available on the market.
Musk still controls the company: he holds more than 80% of SpaceX’s voting rights and serves simultaneously as CEO, chief technology officer and chairman. Some institutional investors have publicly criticized that concentration of control as a governance risk, while at least one Jefferies analyst has pushed back, arguing the criticism is overblown.