A Reuters/Ipsos poll revealed that Elon Musk’s SpaceX has become a household name in the U.S. Around 84% of Americans are familiar with the company, according to the six-day poll closed on Monday.
Only 13% said they have not heard of SpaceX. The figure is comparable to Boeing: despite being a 110-year-old aerospace giant whose aircraft carry hundreds of millions of passengers each year, 14% of respondents said they had never heard of the company.
The aerospace company also surpassed noted political figures, including Republican Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who one in five respondents had not heard of, and Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom, unknown to one in four respondents. Both are seen as strong contenders for the White House in 2028.
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The American space program has been increasingly relying on SpaceX, the only U.S. entity capable of sending astronauts to the International Space Station. It is also building a key astronaut base on the moon lander for NASA, and launching most Pentagon’s satellites to space. The company is planning to cash in on its popularity in its stock offering, reserving up to 30% of the initial stock sales for retail investors — far more than the usual 5% to 10% —according to Reuters.
Some 29% of poll respondents said they would likely buy stock in SpaceX if it were available to them. However, Reuters clarified that this doesn’t mean a third of the country will rush out to buy the shares. The Federal Reserve estimates only a fifth of households own any individual stocks directly, and many of those holdings are employer-stock related.
SpaceX is also a somewhat controversial company because of its CEO Elon Musk, a billionaire who played a key role in the early months of President Donald Trump’s second term. Around 74% of Republicans in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said they had a favorable view of SpaceX, compared to 32% of Democrats and 49% of Americans overall.
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U.S. space agency NASA had an 80% favorability rating, although respondents were more divided about crewed space exploration, with 38% saying the costs of NASA sending people to space outweigh the benefits and 58% saying the effort is worth it. Some respondents also have reservations about the commercialization of space, with 33% of poll respondents saying they oppose the goal of several private companies to mine resources on the moon.
Another 24% support the idea, which is among SpaceX’s long-term business plans, and 41% said they neither supported nor opposed it. The poll was conducted online, with 4,531 U.S. adults nationwide participating.
SpaceX in its upcoming IPO is targeting a valuation of roughly $1.75 trillion and plans to raise about $75 billion in its public debut, making it one of the most closely watched IPOs in recent years. Analysts say that the SpaceX IPO is as much a test of investor appetite for rocketry and artificial intelligence.