SpaceX stock would be worth an estimated $12 billion if it went public today (Monday), based on its current private valuation of $12 billion.
However, this is an estimate since the SpaceX share price would depend on the number of shares issued during the SpaceX IPO. Since a company's market capitalization can be defined as its publicly traded valuation, the combined value of all shares of SpaceX stock would be equal to that $12 billion private valuation.
But because we have no details on a potential IPO, we won't know for sure how much SpaceX stock is worth until CEO Elon Musk offers more details on its market debut.
While investors are clamoring for a SpaceX IPO, there's one important reason why Musk hasn't set a SpaceX IPO date - and probably won't anytime soon...
Why SpaceX Stock Will Remain Privately Owned in 2017
The biggest reason why SpaceX won't file to go public this year is Musk's plan to colonize Mars.
You see, building a human colony on Mars has always been SpaceX's long-term mission. Musk ultimately wants to be able to send people to Mars for cheap - a goal whose implausibility has fueled Musk's determination to make it happen.
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"SpaceX is like Special Forces... we do the missions that others think are impossible," Musk says on SpaceX's website. "We have goals that are absurdly ambitious by any reasonable standard, but we're going to make them happen."
According to a September 2016 report by Wired, Musk estimated a single ticket to Mars would cost about $10 billion. But he plans to significantly reduce that expense to $200,000 - about the cost of a two-bedroom house in Madison, Wis.
But Musk has repeatedly said he doesn't plan to start colonizing Mars until 2022. When he said in 2015 that a SpaceX IPO would happen "once flights to Mars begin," investors took it as an indication there won't be an offering until 2022 at the earliest.
The years-long tease has the investing public anxious for a SpaceX IPO, especially as the company continues to rake in billions in revenue.
In fact, this recent SpaceX news shows how the firm is set up for long-term profits even before flights to Mars begin...
This News Just Boosted Interest in the SpaceX IPO
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On Monday, Feb. 27, SpaceX announced it will send two private citizens on a Dragon 2 spacecraft to the moon and back sometime by the end of next year. The passengers will spend about one week inside the Dragon 2's capsules, which will be deployed from the company's Falcon Heavy rocket.
According to the company's press release, the two citizens will orbit the moon and return to Earth. That will make them the first people to travel that far into space in more than 40 years. The two citizens are set to start fitness training and health tests later this year.
But that wasn't the only big news last month to raise investor interest in SpaceX stock...
On Feb. 6, SpaceX COO and President Gwynne Shotwell said the firm will launch Falcon 9 rockets once every two or three weeks. SpaceX has only launched a maximum of nine Falcon 9 rockets per year since 2015. That means this new initiative will be the quickest rate of Falcon 9 launches ever.
And the initiative began on Feb. 19, when the firm launched its first Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center and successfully landed it on the International Space Station (ISS).
This huge uptick in supply launches will lead to billions in profits for SpaceX. The company's website states that SpaceX charges $62 million for each Falcon 9 supply launch. If you multiply that cost by the 70 supply orders currently on SpaceX's backlog, the company already has $4.34 billion in future revenue on the books. That's 67% more cash than the company earned from its $2.6 billion NASA contract three years ago.
The Bottom Line: With a growing launch frequency and big list of supply orders, SpaceX is set up to earn billions in revenue. That will ultimately justify the estimated $12 billion value of all shares of SpaceX stock once they begin trading down the road.
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