SpaceX went public in June. What the December window decides for the people who built it.

• Space Exploration Technologies Corp. priced its initial public offering at $135 a share on June 11, 2026 and began trading on Nasdaq as SPCX on June 12, 2026.
• Shares held by employees and other pre-IPO holders are under a 180-day lockup that ends December 8, 2026, with staged releases before then.
• The staged releases, as described in the prospectus: a first release after the second-quarter earnings report on August 4; a further price-based release that required the stock to close at least 30 percent above the offer price over a set window, which was not met; time-based releases at 70, 90, 105, 120 and 135 days after pricing (August 20, September 9, September 24, October 9 and October 24); further releases tied to later quarterly results; and the full release on December 8. How much of your own holding each date covers depends on your grants.
• Elon Musk and company insiders are under a longer lockup of 366 days, through June 2027.
• After every release, current employees remain subject to SpaceX’s insider trading policy and its trading windows. A lockup release is not the same as an open window.
• SpaceX employs people in Hawthorne, California, on the Space Coast in Florida, at Starbase in Texas, and in Washington, among other locations. This page is written for the people in California and Florida, the two of those states where BFA is registered.

Source: SpaceX IPO prospectus (Form 424B4), SEC EDGAR, filed June 12, 2026. We have no relationship with the company and no non-public information. Confirm your own tranches and dates with the company’s equity team.

A lockup release is permission from the underwriters, not from your employer. Each date lets a slice of your shares be sold under the lockup agreement. Whether you can actually sell that week depends on the company’s trading windows, which usually close in the weeks before an earnings report and reopen a few days after. Between the October dates and December 8 there is a third-quarter earnings report, so the calendar matters more than the percentages.

Most of the tax was decided before you sell. RSUs were taxed as wages the day they vested, at their value that day, and the federal withholding was most likely the 22 percent supplemental rate, or 37 percent on the part of a year’s supplemental wages above one million dollars. If your real rate is higher, the difference is due in April, and California will want its share separately. When you sell, the gain or loss is measured from the value at vest, not from zero. Options are different. Exercising a nonqualified option creates ordinary income on the spread that day, and exercising an incentive stock option can create alternative minimum tax with no cash to pay it.

The decision that decides the most is how much of your net worth stays in one stock after the window opens. A plan made in October, when nothing can be sold, tends to be better than a decision made in December, when everything can. Anyone who may hold material non-public information, and every director and officer, should know that a 10b5-1 trading plan needs a cooling-off period before its first trade: at least 90 days for directors and officers, and 30 days for other employees. A plan meant to trade in December has to exist well before then.

1. Which lockup tranches apply to my shares, and on which dates does each one release?
2. When are the company’s open trading windows between now and the end of the year, and do I hold anything that keeps me out of them?
3. Of what I hold, how much is settled RSU shares, RSUs still vesting, options, and shares bought in a tender offer? Each is taxed differently.
4. What is my cost basis for each lot, and which lots have I held for more than a year?
5. What did the withholding at vest cover, and what will I owe in April beyond it, federal and, in California, state?
6. If I hold options, what would exercising this year do to my ordinary income or my AMT, and when do they expire?
7. How much of my net worth is in SPCX today, and what number would I be comfortable with a year from now?
8. Do I need a 10b5-1 plan, and if so, by what date does it have to be adopted for a December trade?
9. What cash will I need in the next two years, for taxes, a home, a year of runway, and how much of it has to come from this window?
10. Should I be making estimated tax payments this year, and what does the safe harbor look like for me?
11. Are there charitable gifts of appreciated shares, or gifts to family, that make more sense before year-end than after?
12. What is my plan if the stock is far lower, or far higher, in December than it is today?

Nobody at the company is paid to answer these for you. The equity team will tell you the mechanics. Your CPA will tell you last year’s number. The person who puts it all on one page, in the order it matters, is usually missing. That is the gap we fill.