SPCX Stock Inches Higher After-Hours: NASA Selects SpaceX To Provide Launch Services For StarBurst Mission

NASA has awarded SpaceX a launch contract under its VADR program to deliver the StarBurst small satellite into orbit in 2028.

• SpaceX will launch the StarBurst satellite aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
• The mission is set for no earlier than 2028. 
• NASA awarded the selection through its Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) program, a 10-year contract mechanism capped at $1 billion across all vendors. 

NASA has tapped SpaceX (SPCX) to launch a small-satellite mission designed to probe deep-space explosions, called the StarBurst mission.

The space agency selected SpaceX to provide launch services for the StarBurst mission, which will investigate short gamma-ray bursts triggered by the merger of dense stellar remnants known as neutron stars.

StarBurst is slated to lift off no earlier than 2028 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The launch will be executed as part of SpaceX’s Bandwagon rideshare program, which deploys multiple payloads into mid-inclination orbits.

SPCX stock gained about 3% on Thursday and was up 0.2% after-hours at the time of writing. 

Contract Details

NASA issued the award as a firm-fixed-price task order under its Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) contract. The VADR framework is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity agreement managed by the Launch Services Program Office at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Designed to provide low-cost, flexible launch opportunities for smaller payloads, the 10-year VADR program carries a maximum potential value of $1 billion across all participating contractors.

StarBurst Mission Statement

StarBurst will monitor every part of the sky not blocked by the Earth's horizon, searching for brief, intense bursts of high-energy radiation, NASA said. The primary objective is capturing the initial radiation released during cataclysmic neutron star collisions.

By combining gamma-ray data from StarBurst with gravitational-wave detections and observations from ground- and space-based telescopes, scientists aim to advance multimessenger astronomy—an approach that uses different types of cosmic signals to study the same high-energy events.

NASA's Astrophysics Pioneers Program sponsors StarBurst, an initiative within the Science Mission Directorate that supports high-impact astrophysics research using smaller, lower-cost platforms.

SPCX Stock: Retail View 

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits was ‘bullish’ with ‘high’ message volumes for SPCX stock.

SPCX stock has lost about 3.8% since listing.

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