Cashing in on SpaceX: 'Every chance I get, I'll sell a little more'

Andre Lavoie joined SpaceX in 2009 as an engineer, designing the pressure tanks that help power its rocket. He was paid partly in stock - a common trade-off at start-ups as a hiring incentive.

Some 17 years on, those 200,000 shares he was given are worth about $23m (£17m) - and the 63-year-old says he's ready to start cashing them as soon as he can.

"Every chance I get going forward, I'll sell a little bit more," he tells the BBC.

"The shares have been going up so radically it keeps messing up my life plans - you really can't know the future, so it's better to sell early and in intervals."

Lavoie is far from being the only one who has seen the value of his stake in SpaceX rocket over the years.

The company's founder, Elon Musk, said on Fox News that SpaceX's listing on the stock market in June had likely made "several thousand" employees millionaires - including staff "who were working on the production line".

According to reports, there are estimated to be 4,400 new millionaires created by the listing.

Unlike most newly-listed firms, SpaceX shares are set to be released in stages: the first 20% on 6 August, with more due in batches through the rest of the year.