Space company: Musk's SpaceX impresses with Starlink business in the first quarter

SpaceX, Elon Musk's space company, ended the first quarter with a loss on the stock market, following a loss of around a billion dollars the previous year. Revenue increased year-on-year by nearly 92 percent to 7.8 billion dollars. SpaceX significantly outperformed analyst expectations, which were around 6.9 billion dollars on average.

The main revenue generator remains the satellite internet service Starlink, which saw its revenue increase year-on-year by almost two thirds to around 4.3 billion dollars in the last quarter. Major airlines are increasingly turning to Musk's internet from space. The operational result rose by 80 percent to around 1.66 billion dollars.

The number of Starlink customers grew within three months from 10.3 to 12 million. With new satellites, Starlink aims to bring smartphones directly onto the network and could compete with telecommunications companies. Up and down for the SpaceX share was a record issuance of 75 billion dollars to the stock market in mid-June. With the issue price of 135 dollars, Musk's company launched onto the debut market with a valuation of almost 1.8 trillion dollars.

This was in sharp contrast to the current business, but SpaceX justified the valuation with ambitious plans in artificial intelligence. In the first weeks after the stock market debut, the share price rose to around 225 dollars, driven in part by interest from retail investors. It has since fallen below the issue price and closed Tuesday at around 125 dollars in regular US trading.

In a post-market reaction, there was a share price drop of up to eight percent in after-hours trading. On Thursday, the lock-up period for further shares of insiders and early investors opens, which could then come onto the market. SpaceX has become indispensable for the US space program in recent years. The company is currently investing heavily in the large rocket Starship, which is still conducting test flights. It is intended to make sending payloads into space significantly cheaper.