# How Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX) compares with the whole market and its popular alternatives

> Source: BetterThanSPY research, https://betterthanspy.com/research/spcx
> Data as of October 22, 2026. Total returns include reinvested dividends. Past performance does not predict future results; nothing here is investment advice.

Built by QuantCommons' quantitative engine, this page is about relative opportunity, not data on SPCX alone. It places SPCX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.) against 20+ popular alternatives, its neighboring categories and the entire market of over 10,000 U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs, and surfaces what has done better on consistent outperformance, return for the risk taken and diversification. The result is a clearer view of where SPCX stands in the market, and of the alternatives worth a closer look.

Period covered: SPCX's full trading record. All returns include reinvested dividends. Data as of October 22, 2026.

## Key findings

- **Right now:** Over the past 3 months, SPCX rose 25.6% against 2.5% for the S&P 500. On the flip side, the slide is SPCX's own: it is 28.3% below its high, against 1.9% for the S&P 500.
- **Stock or market?:** SPCX held up far better than its industry: it rose 25.6% over the past 3 months while the aerospace & defense ETF ITA (iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF) fell 11.4%. The S&P 500 rose 2.5%.

## SPCX at a glance

This section summarizes the key facts about the stock, its returns over the months since it began trading and the risk it has carried, with dividends reinvested throughout.

- SPCX is still 28.3% below its all-time high.
- SPCX's deepest decline since it began trading in 2026 was 46.4%, from June to August 2026. It has not yet climbed back to that peak.

- Type: Stock, Industrials (Aerospace & Defense)
- Trading since: June 12, 2026
- Market value: $1.9T
- Worst decline ever: −46.4%, from June 16, 2026 to August 5, 2026; not yet back at its high

| Period | SPCX total return |
| --- | --- |
| 1 month | −6.4% |
| 3 months | +25.6% |

## SPCX against its popular alternatives

The investments people most often weigh against SPCX, compared period by period and year by year.

### Has SPCX consistently beaten its popular alternatives?

This section compares SPCX with the investments people most often weigh against it, checking each one over two periods from one month to three months.

- None of the 20 popular alternatives outperformed SPCX in both of its timeframes. The closest was LMT.

| Investment | Periods ahead of SPCX | Verdict | Sharpe |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| SPCX: Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (this page) |  |  | — |
| [LMT](https://betterthanspy.com/research/lmt): Lockheed Martin Corporation | 1/2 short-term |  | — |
| [NOC](https://betterthanspy.com/research/noc): Northrop Grumman Corporation | 1/2 short-term |  | — |
| GSAT: Globalstar, Inc. | 1/2 short-term |  | — |
| [AMZN](https://betterthanspy.com/research/amzn): Amazon.com, Inc. | 1/2 short-term |  | — |
| [RTX](https://betterthanspy.com/research/rtx): RTX Corporation | 1/2 short-term |  | — |
| [BA](https://betterthanspy.com/research/ba): The Boeing Company | 1/2 short-term |  | — |
| [LHX](https://betterthanspy.com/research/lhx): L3Harris Technologies, Inc. | 1/2 short-term |  | — |
| [HEI](https://betterthanspy.com/research/hei): HEICO Corporation | 1/2 short-term |  | — |
| SATL: Satellogic Inc. | 0/2 short-term |  | — |
| IRDM: Iridium Communications Inc. | 0/2 short-term |  | — |
| SPCE: Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. | 0/2 short-term |  | — |
| RDW: Redwire Corp | 0/2 short-term |  | — |
| VSAT: Viasat, Inc. | 0/2 short-term |  | — |
| SPIR: Spire Global, Inc. | 0/2 short-term |  | — |
| BKSY: BlackSky Technology Inc. | 0/2 short-term |  | — |
| LUNR: Intuitive Machines, Inc. | 0/2 short-term |  | — |
| RKLB: Rocket Lab USA, Inc. | 0/2 short-term |  | — |
| [HWM](https://betterthanspy.com/research/hwm): Howmet Aerospace Inc. | 0/2 short-term |  | — |
| ASTS: AST SpaceMobile, Inc. | 0/2 short-term |  | — |
| PL: Planet Labs PBC | 0/2 short-term |  | — |

## Risk and diversification

How SPCX has fallen, how it held up in crashes beside the S&P 500 and its popular alternatives, and what moves independently of it.

### What were SPCX's worst declines?

A drawdown is the decline from a peak to the lowest point before a new high.

- Not every decline was the market's doing: SPCX fell 46.4% from June to August 2026, while the S&P 500 rose 2.9%.

| Decline | Peak | Low | Back at the high | SPY over the same dates | Market event |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| −46.4% | June 16, 2026 | August 5, 2026 | not yet | +2.9% |  |

## Common questions

### What was SPCX's worst drawdown?

SPCX's deepest decline since it began trading in 2026 was 46.4%, from June to August 2026. It has not yet climbed back to that peak. Because SPCX launched in June 2026, that record does not include the dot-com bust, the 2008 financial crisis or eight other sell-offs.

### What are the best alternatives to SPCX?

None of the 20 popular alternatives we compared outperformed SPCX in both of its timeframes, which says more about SPCX's strength than about its alternatives.

## More research

- [Lockheed Martin (LMT) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://betterthanspy.com/research/lmt)
- [Northrop Grumman (NOC) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://betterthanspy.com/research/noc)
- [Amazon.com (AMZN) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://betterthanspy.com/research/amzn)
- [RTX Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://betterthanspy.com/research/rtx)
- [Boeing (BA) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://betterthanspy.com/research/ba)
- [L3Harris Technologies (LHX) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://betterthanspy.com/research/lhx)
- [HEICO (HEI) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://betterthanspy.com/research/hei)
- [Howmet Aerospace (HWM) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://betterthanspy.com/research/hwm)
- [Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://betterthanspy.com/research/schd)
- [NVIDIA (NVDA) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://betterthanspy.com/research/nvda)
- [Apple (AAPL) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://betterthanspy.com/research/aapl)
- [Alphabet (GOOG) Performance, Alternatives and Market Rank](https://betterthanspy.com/research/goog)

## Explore further

- Full page with charts: https://betterthanspy.com/research/spcx
- All research pages: https://betterthanspy.com/llms.txt
- Compare the entire market against SPCX live: https://betterthanspy.com/?b=SPCX