Investors in Elon Musk’s space company get a chance to question him Tuesday after SpaceX issues its first quarterly earnings since going public.
SpaceX shares are down by half from their June peak as investors worry Musk may have oversold them on its future prospects. They’re also bracing for volatile trading as some company insiders get the opportunity to sell shares after the expiration of what’s known as a lockup provision later in the week.
Part visionary engineer, part stock salesman, Musk is likely to be asked about when he expects to finish testing SpaceX’s giant Starship rockets that NASA hopes to use to put men on the moon again, his plans for its satellite network and the prospects of putting football-field sized datacenters in orbit.
Given rumors of SpaceX possibly merging with Musk’s Tesla car company, he may also face questions about that tie-up but that is likely to yield few details. Neither company has confirmed plans for a combination and Musk has parried questions before by noting securities regulations bar him from discussing the issue.
SpaceX is losing money fast, with net losses for its first half this year expected to exceed more than the $5 billion in losses for all of last year. Some analysts have penciled in a strong rebound for the rest of the year that will return it to profitability.
