SpaceX investors can't catch a break.

Shares of Elon Musk's rocket and AI company were down in premarket trading on Friday after the company scrubbed the thirteenth test of Starship.

A problem with booster engines led to the delay. Musk said some of the engines didn't start, triggering an automatic abort. Two engines will be replaced, and the launch can happen early next week.

Space is hard, and Starship is still in development. Still, SpaceX stock was down about 3.6% in premarket trading at $126.52. That would be a new low for shares, which closed at $131.11 on Thursday, down 3.1%. That was the fifth consecutive decline, and the first time shares closed below the $135 IPO price.

A few things have weighed on investor sentiment, including valuation and technical factors. SpaceX is valued at roughly 45 times estimated 2026 sales. And 20% of the shares outstanding become available to trade after the company's quarterly conference call, expected in a few weeks.

Add Starship delays to the list of worries.

The importance of Starship developments can't be overstated. It can dramatically lower the cost of reaching space, enabling applications such as orbital AI data centers. Starship is the "flywheel" that creates value for SpaceX, says RBC analyst Ken Herbert.

"SpaceX's outlook depends on several technologies not yet proven at commercial scale, including fully reusable Starship capable of hitting thousands of launches/year," wrote Adam Jonas in his SpaceX stock initiation report.

Thousands of launches is an unfathomable number for space. Humanity launched about 330 times in 2025. SpaceX was responsible for more than half of those.

That's the scale SpaceX is aiming for and why investors are so keen to see Starship fly successfully.

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

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July 17, 2026 05:40 ET (09:40 GMT)

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