SpaceX’s Starship rocket launched again. The 14th test flight for the huge, fully reusable rocket is a reminder of Elon Musk’s ambitions, which Wall Street has embraced.
The test, and even a new rating, didn’t help shares on Monday, however. There are a few reasons for that.
Following the launch, SpaceX shares rose as high as $150.80 after reversing a premarket decline, but turned lower by late morning on Monday. The stock closed at $145.47, down 2.2%, while the S&P 500 index and Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.8% and 0.7%, respectively.
To be sure, the test was impressive. It was the first time Starship went into orbit around the Earth. Prior tests were suborbital, which means the ship never gets to the speed required to, well, not fall back to the ground.
Starship circled the Earth after deploying 26 working Version 3 Starlink satellites. The larger V3 satellites are more capable and need the larger Starship to enter service. V3 satellites will help SpaceX expand its Starlink space-based broadband business into mobile wireless communications. Today, Starlink has more than 11,000 satellites serving more than 12 million customers.
One of the upper stage engines was lost during launch, though. SpaceX took a few minutes, but decided to go for orbit. The engine problem still cut the mission short.
The shortened mission is one reason for the drop. But investors probably shouldn’t expect big bumps from Starship testing. Things need to go well. Success is already baked into the stock price.
SpaceX dominates the global launch business, handling a majority of the globe’s space launch business. SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket 165 times in 2025. It should launch a similar number of times in 2026.
That impressive scale still belies what SpaceX is after in the long run. “Starship is two to three years away from hourly flights,” tweeted CEO Elon Musk on Sunday.
SpaceX plans to launch Starship a lot, often carrying Starmind AI computing satellites. Musk’s rocket and AI company plans to build a massive AI data center in orbit, using the power of the sun and vacuum of space to overcome power, cooling, and political bottlenecks to AI growth.
Hourly flights with fully reusable rockets would give SpaceX a cost advantage over terrestrial data centers and the ability to scale any space-based businesses much faster than anyone on Earth.
Any one test hiccup isn’t really a big deal, so long as the program stays on schedule. Starship is new and SpaceX is working out the kinks. Starship test flight number 13, which launched in July, was largely a success, with Starship deploying some V3 test satellites.
It’s hard to fathom just what hourly flights of a huge rocket would mean for SpaceX, AI, and the telecom business. SpaceX, and Musk, have never lacked for ambition.
A new rating didn’t give SpaceX stock a bump either. CLSA launched coverage with a Buy rating and $250 price target, according to ratings aggregators. Barron’s didn’t see a copy of the report.
One reason that didn’t boost shares is it’s a consensus call. SpaceX stock is already popular on Wall Street. Overall, 76% of analysts covering SpaceX stock rate it Buy, according to FactSet. The average Buy-rating ratio for S&P 500 stocks typically ranges from 55% to 60%. The average analyst price target for SpaceX stock is about $224.
Comments