SpaceX's huge Starship finally got off the ground again. Elon Musk's rocket and AI company launched the fully reusable rocket on its 13th test flight at about 6:51 p.m. Eastern time.

The test went well. The booster successfully completed a boostback burn and landed offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.

Eventually, SpaceX plans to catch the booster with giant mechanical arms, partly to aid in rapid reusability.

Starship's upper stage deployed 20 Starlink V3 -- or version three -- satellites and re-lit a Raptor rocket engine in space. (Starlink is SpaceX's space-based broadband business, with more than 10 million subscribers.) Later, the upper stage will splash down in the Indian Ocean.

The Texas launch can be re-watched at spacex.com and on X.

SpaceX shares were down about 1% in after-hours trading. Shares closed at $115.07, down 2.7%, in regular trading, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average gained about 0.1% and 0.5%, respectively. Shares closed the week down about 7% for the week.

A few things weighed on investor sentiment, including Starship testing delays. The 13th test was first scheduled to launch on July 17. It was aborted after engine trouble.

Before Friday's launch, SpaceX explained what happened during the first abort. Four engines didn't light, and the cause was related to frozen water seizing turbopumps that introduce fuel. The engineering details of rockets can be difficult to understand. For investors, the message is that a lot can go wrong when building new systems at a scale never before tried. Starship can hold roughly five metric tons of oxygen and methane cooled to the point the gases liquefy.

Starship is incredibly important for SpaceX, cutting the per-kilogram cost to reach orbit by 90% or more. Low costs enable business opportunities such as AI data centers in space.

Along with Starship delays, a new rating hit shares. HSBC analyst Nicolas Cote-Colisson launched coverage of the stock with a Hold rating and a $115 price target, according to Wall Street ratings aggregators. Barron's hasn't seen the full report. HSBC declined to provide a copy of the report.

A Hold is a surprise for SpaceX. Wall Street has been positive on its stock. Overall, 28 of 37, or 76%, of analysts covering shares rate them Buy. The average Buy-rating ratio for S&P 500 stocks ranges from 55% to 60%. The average analyst price target for SpaceX stock is about $237 a share, according to FactSet.

According to summaries, Cote-Colisson says SpaceX is impressive, but that investors should be "prudent." The stock faces more selling pressure as shares of early investors become available to trade after the record-setting June IPO.

The company's first earnings report on Aug. 4 will be a key catalyst for the stock, according to the analyst. SpaceX will have to demonstrate growth in the Starlink business to give shares a boost.

They could use some help. Coming into Friday trading, the stock was down more than 40% from its closing high of $201.80, and down 12% from its $135 IPO price.

The stock just can't gain any altitude. After back-to-back 19%-plus gains in the two days following the IPO, SpaceX shares have dropped in 17 of the past 26 trading sessions, including a brutal seven-day losing streak that ended on Tuesday. After snapping the streak, SpaceX stock dropped again, losing 6.7% on Wednesday.

Maybe Starship's successful test, and then the Aug. 4 earnings report, can help shares stabilize. Investors will have to wait and see.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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July 24, 2026 19:48 ET (23:48 GMT)

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