SpaceX launches another Starship, and this time the market is watching

The rocket took off from the company’s Starbase site near Brownsville, Texas around 6:45 p.m. Eastern time on its 13th demo mission, soaring on an easterly trajectory. Similar to past flights, the operation was expected to last about an hour, with the vehicle’s spacecraft navigating space before a planned re-entry and landing in the Indian Ocean.

Standing roughly 400 feet tall on the launchpad, Starship is the throughline technology for many of SpaceX’s objectives and the rich valuation the Elon Musk-led company commanded when it completed a massive public offering last month.

SpaceX has said it has invested more than $15 billion in Starship. The vehicle is still in a test and development phase, which includes Friday’s launch. The company needs to get Starship regularly flying to handle lunar missions for NASA, fortify its Starlink network and, in the future, deploy artificial-intelligence satellites.

“Everything depends on Starship,” analysts at JPMorgan Chase said in a recent research note.

SpaceX had scheduled the test flight to happen last week, but it was scrubbed shortly before liftoff after problems with the booster engines. Inclement weather prompted another delay and the launch being scheduled for Friday.

During the launch, the Starship spacecraft deployed upgraded Starlink satellites, a first for the vehicle. The 20 satellites, dubbed “V3” devices by the company, are designed to handle much more data than the satellites SpaceX currently lofts to orbit using its Falcon 9 fleet.

The mission is the second time SpaceX has launched its latest version of Starship. Improvements the company have touted on the rocket include more powerful engines, a redesigned heat-management system on part of the booster, and an enhanced system for deploying satellites.

The company had said it expects to begin deploying more advanced Starlink satellites with Starship in the second half of this year.

Investors have grown more cautious about SpaceX in recent days, pushing the company’s stock price below its IPO price.

Many SpaceX shareholders have been anticipating Friday’s launch and are looking for more details about the Starship program when the company reports quarterly earnings for the first time on Aug. 4.

Write to Micah Maidenberg at [email protected]