HAWTHORNE, Calif., July 14 — $78 per share. That is the figure that matters for SpaceX investors looking back at February 20, 2025, when the private aerospace company’s stock hit an all-time low, plunging 22% from the prior close of $100. The bottom line: competition just got real.
Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos in 2000, pulled off something on February 19, 2025, that had been SpaceX’s signature trick for a decade — the first fully reusable orbital rocket launch. Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, which first flew in January 2025, landed both its first-stage booster and its payload fairing for reuse.
That feat had been unique to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets since 2015, when SpaceX first landed a Falcon 9 booster. By the numbers: SpaceX’s stock had peaked at $150 per share in December 2024. The company’s valuation stood at $180 billion as of February 2025, down from $210 billion in January 2025.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley pointed directly at increased competition in the launch market.
The contract picture shifts
Blue Origin now holds a backlog of 30 contracts worth $3 billion. SpaceX still leads with 100 contracts valued at $10 billion. SpaceX, headquartered in Hawthorne, California, has been the dominant player in reusable rocket technology since 2015.
Elon Musk founded the company in 2002. For nearly a decade, no other company matched its ability to land and reuse boosters.
That exclusivity is now over. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration licensed the Blue Origin launch under a five-year license granted in 2024. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson praised the achievement, noting that competition drives innovation.
The bigger space economy
The broader space industry was valued at $546 billion in 2024, according to the Space Foundation, and is projected to grow to $1.8 trillion by 2035. SpaceX’s stock trades on private markets, meaning its valuation swings are felt by a narrower group of investors than a public company’s would be. Still, the February 2025 drop of 22% in a single day sent a signal across the industry: the reusable rocket moat had been breached.
What to watch next
The key question for the rest of 2025 and into 2026 is whether Blue Origin can convert its 30-contract backlog into regular, reliable launches — and whether SpaceX can maintain its pricing and reliability edge as its former monopoly on reusability erodes. With the space industry projected to triple in value over the next decade, both companies have room to grow. But the days of SpaceX having the reusable rocket market to itself are over.
Sources
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