December 22, 2025 — A new ticker has rocketed onto U.S. markets, and traders are treating it like the latest “pure-play space” momentum trade.
Starfighters Space, Inc. — now trading on NYSE American under the ticker “FJET” — is drawing outsized attention on December 22, 2025, as shares swing sharply higher in heavy volume, extending a volatile first week as a public company. Business Wire+1
The move is landing at the same moment the broader space complex is catching another bid: Rocket Lab has pushed to fresh highs after a weekend launch and a major U.S. Space Force contract, while AST SpaceMobile is climbing again ahead of a next-generation satellite launch.
What is Starfighters Space (FJET)?
Starfighters Space is an aerospace company based at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Its calling card is a fleet of supersonic Lockheed F‑104 “Starfighter” jets — legacy aircraft repurposed for modern aerospace missions and, ultimately, for an air-launched path to sub-orbital access. Business Wire+1
In company materials and coverage this month, Starfighters has positioned its strategy around two big themes:
- Near-space / launch access: Through its STARLAUNCH programs, Starfighters aims to use a modified F‑104 as a “first stage” aircraft, carrying a small launch vehicle to altitude before release for an air-launch profile aimed at small satellites and sub-orbital payloads. AGN+1
- Hypersonic and aerospace test services: The company highlights an existing services base — including aerospace test and evaluation, training, and research support — as it builds toward launch operations.
In an Investing.com interview around the listing, CEO Rick Svetkoff described Starfighters as “an operating company with real assets, real missions,” framing the public listing as a way to scale capabilities rather than simply fund a long-dated concept. Investing.com
The IPO and NYSE American listing: what happened
Starfighters’ path to the public market is a major part of why traders are watching so closely.
The company completed its initial public offering by selling 11,142,061 shares at $3.59 per share, raising $40 million, according to its public communications.
Days later, Starfighters announced that its shares would begin trading on NYSE American under “FJET,” with trading scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. ET on December 18, 2025. Business Wire+1
The company has also emphasized that it is the first space company to move from a Regulation A Tier 2 offering to an NYSE American listing — a structure that can broaden retail access compared with a traditional, institution-heavy IPO process.
Why FJET stock is moving so violently on December 22
The immediate driver on December 22 is simple: momentum and volume.
Benzinga reported that FJET opened around $7.73 on Monday morning and then saw “massive volatility” amid trading volume of more than 36 million shares, far above its reported average volume. By mid-afternoon, the outlet cited the stock up more than 200% on the day. Benzinga
The pattern is familiar to anyone who has watched small-float, newly listed names catch a bid:
- New ticker + “space” narrative draws attention quickly.
- High volatility amplifies social-media and scanner visibility.
- Sector-wide strength creates a supportive backdrop for speculative rotation.
Stocktwits coverage last week showed that retail traders were already clustering around FJET soon after its debut, with “extremely bullish” sentiment and “extremely high” message volume at the time of writing. Stocktwits
“Waiting for the SpaceX IPO?” The FJET sympathy trade effect
FJET’s spike is also happening in the shadow of a much bigger market obsession: SpaceX IPO speculation.
On December 22, TheStreet Pro published a trade-idea piece aimed at investors “waiting to buy the SpaceX IPO,” pointing them instead toward a low-Earth-orbit-themed public name — and specifically referencing FJET’s Kennedy Space Center footprint. TheStreet Pro
That angle is resonating because SpaceX IPO talk has been unusually loud in December. Reuters reported earlier this month that SpaceX is pursuing an IPO in 2026 to raise more than $25 billion, potentially valuing the company at over $1 trillion, citing a source familiar with the matter.
Whether or not an IPO timeline holds, the market behavior is already clear: when investors can’t buy SpaceX, they look for public proxies and theme-adjacent names — and brand-new space listings can become magnets.
The bigger picture: space stocks are leading again today
FJET isn’t moving in a vacuum. Space equities are broadly energized, and today’s headlines show why.
Rocket Lab hits fresh highs on launch execution and an $816 million Space Force deal
Rocket Lab shares continued rising on Monday after two major catalysts:
- A successful Electron launch that deployed satellites for Japan-based Earth imaging firm iQPS, part of what Rocket Lab described as a record pace of 21 Electron launches over the past year with a 100% success rate.
- A contract worth up to $816 million to design and manufacture 18 satellites for a U.S. Space Force missile-defense constellation — described as Rocket Lab’s largest contract to date.
When the sector leader of the day is posting “execution + government contract” headlines, it tends to lift risk appetite across the space complex — including smaller, earlier-stage stories.
AST SpaceMobile surges again ahead of BlueBird 6
MarketWatch reported that AST SpaceMobile was rising ahead of the expected launch of BlueBird 6 from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Center, calling it a next-generation satellite with significantly greater size and data capacity than its predecessor.
The same report noted AST’s longer runway of planned launches and its aim to enable intermittent direct-to-cellular service in the U.S. in early 2026 via partnerships that include Verizon.
The policy tailwind: “Ensuring American Space Superiority”
Investor psychology matters in thematic rallies — and in late 2025, U.S. space policy is becoming a live catalyst.
On December 18, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Ensuring American Space Superiority.” Reuters reported the order enshrines a U.S. goal of returning humans to the Moon by 2028 and calls for additional steps around space security and missile-defense demonstrations. Reuters
A White House fact sheet on the order also highlights objectives including “initial elements of a permanent lunar outpost by 2030,” along with directives related to nuclear power infrastructure in orbit and on the lunar surface. The White House
Add it up and you get a policy narrative that reads bullish for the sector: more national focus, more procurement, more launch cadence — and (in market terms) more reasons for investors to chase “space” beta.
The STARLAUNCH bet — and the shadow of Virgin Orbit
Starfighters’ story is unusual even by space-industry standards because it’s betting on piloted air-launch using vintage supersonic jets. That approach comes with both intrigue and real skepticism.
Aerospace Global News notes that STARLAUNCH is designed as a two-stage concept where an F‑104 carries a small launch vehicle to altitude, offering flexibility such as operating from conventional runways and potentially avoiding congestion at fixed launch ranges.
But the same coverage underscores an unavoidable comparison: Virgin Orbit, which attempted air-launch using a modified Boeing 747 before collapsing in 2023 — a case study in how hard it is to make air-launch economics work at scale.
Starfighters argues its model differs in meaningful ways, including smaller aircraft and parallel revenue streams (testing and training) rather than relying solely on launch cadence.
That debate — can air-launch become commercially durable this time? — is likely to define how institutional investors eventually value FJET once the first-week momentum fades and fundamentals take center stage.
What investors will watch next for FJET
The first week of trading is about price discovery. The next few quarters are about proof.
Here are the milestones likely to matter most:
- Commercial validation of STARLAUNCH: Demonstrations, licensing progress, and a clearer schedule for operational launches. (Starfighters’ air-launch concept is central to the long-term story.)
- Execution in defense-linked programs: In the Investing.com interview, the company discussed participation in the DoD’s MACH‑TB ecosystem and noted Starfighters is a subcontractor to Kratos on the program — the kind of relationship that can boost credibility if it converts into recurring work.
- Financial reporting cadence: As a public company, Starfighters will be expected to translate its “assets and missions” narrative into measurable traction via regular filings and updates. Investing.com
- Volatility risk: The December 22 move is a reminder that early-stage aerospace listings can trade like momentum vehicles before they trade like businesses.
Bottom line
Starfighters Space’s debut has collided with a near-perfect market setup for speculative space trades: fresh listing, retail attention, and a sector rally powered by real catalysts at larger peers like Rocket Lab — plus a headline-rich policy and SpaceX-IPO backdrop.
Whether FJET becomes a lasting public-market space name or a short-lived momentum episode will come down to what happens after the tape cools: execution, contracts, and the ability to turn a unique aircraft fleet into repeatable, scalable access to near-space.
