SpaceX: The company’s future IPO prospects

Yahoo Finance’s Pras Subramanian joins the Live show to discuss SpaceX’s rocket launch delay and the company’s future IPO prospects.

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- SpaceX keeping its Starship rocket grounded, postponing its test flight just minutes ahead of the scheduled launch time after running into an operating issue. Elon Musk's space company saying in a tweet it's, quote, "standing down from today's flight test attempt as the team is working towards the next available opportunity." How does this bode for the future of SpaceX going public? Here with more is Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramanian. I was really looking forward to this today, Pras. So unfortunate though.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah. I know. Me too. I'm wearing my space jacket and everything for the launch. Yeah. So they had to scrubbed the launch of the Starship, the lunar module there, lunar lander there. This was going to take place today. But then it'll be pushed to Wednesday at the very least because of this frozen valve. SpaceX won a $3 billion award to use Starship as their crew lunar lander for when NASA's Artemis mission goes back to the Moon, right.

So you mentioned the IPO talk right, Rachelle. So SpaceX is one of the largest private companies in the world. Last valued at around $140 billion I think thereabouts. They don't need to IPO-- they don't necessarily need the money right away. They've raised a ton of cash. But another option, actually, is spinning off Starlink, its satellite system, instead. There's about 3,500 satellites in the Starlink system. They have over 1 million subscribers. So that's a way to kind of unlock some value for Elon Musk and SpaceX if they need to.

- So how much is riding on this launch, though? Obviously, when you think of what it means for NASA, some of these other launches as well.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: SpaceX has done a number of launches to send items like supplies and satellites up to the Space Station, new satellites for any kind of application, whether it's GPS or even Starlink systems. So they have a pretty robust business from a launching point of view launching freight and cargo into space. Starship was going to be sort of a marquee event for them.

This is sort of the manned crewed launch for SpaceX. And this is going be the biggest, most powerful rocket ever launched. I mean, really, it would have been a very cool launch to see. Hopefully, it happens Wednesday. But it is a big marquee event for the company in a positive launch and a positive result. I think it would be very good for the company's potential IPO prospects in the future.

- Exactly, especially when you figure what happened with Virgin Orbit. Really puts SpaceX in the spotlight for what happens next in this industry. Great stuff. Pras Subramanian there for us.