Topline
A setback in Starship’s latest launch attempt lowered SpaceX shares to another all-time low on Friday, extending a losing streak for the stock and lowering Elon Musk’s net worth by more than $45 billion, after Wall Street appeared optimistic about the firm’s launch capabilities.
Another attempt will come “hopefully in a few days,” Musk said.
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Key Facts
Shares of SpaceX declined 4.4% to around $125 shortly after trading opened on Friday, potentially extending a five-day losing streak for the stock, which cut its value by 14.5% as of Thursday.
Musk, who holds 4.8 billion SpaceX shares and another 350 million stock options, saw his net worth drop by $45.3 billion to $792.8 billion, though he remains the world’s richest person ahead of Google co-founders Larry Page ($282 billion) and Sergey Brin ($260.1 billion).
An extended selloff on Friday followed Musk’s announcement that Starship’s 13th launch, scheduled for Thursday evening, was aborted after some of the rocket’s engines failed to start and that another launch attempt would come “hopefully in a few days.”
In a later post on X, Musk said the “most probable launch timing is early next week.”
UBS analyst Gavin Parsons wrote in a Wednesday note that a recent slide in SpaceX shares presented an opportunity to invest in the stock ahead of the Starship launch, which Parsons said could boost shares and “demonstrate multiple new milestones and, in our view, be a positive for the stock.”
The Starship launch—SpaceX’s first test flight since its initial public offering—was also important because it was “intended to validate” capabilities required of the rocket’s launch ramp, including booster engine relight ability and updated Starlink deployment, Parsons wrote.
what to watch for
Musk’s Tesla will report earnings on July 22. Shareholders have submitted questions to Musk and Tesla executives ahead of an investor call, and several of the most-upvoted prompts ask why Tesla’s robotaxi plans have “stalled.” One such question asks Tesla directly: “What is keeping Tesla back from accomplishing these short-term goals that they’ve set for themselves?”
key background
The latest test flight for Starship comes after a failed attempt in May, during which the rocket’s Super Heavy booster failed to make a controlled landing in the Gulf of Mexico after several engines failed to reignite. Musk has boasted SpaceX’s Starship for years as the firm aspires to ferry cargo and humans to the moon and Mars, and at about 400 feet tall, the rocket is considered the largest ever. Some test flights have resulted in explosions, including a launch last year that Musk called a “minor setback,” arguing it was “not easy making life multiplanetary.” SpaceX pointed to Starship as the forefront of its growth strategy in its IPO prospectus, which the company claims is designed to be the “world’s first fully and rapidly reusable spacecraft” with plans to reduce costs to reach orbit by 99%.