SpaceX's planned 13th Starship V3 rocket launch was scrubbed during its 90-minute take-off window.
Shares in SpaceX were set to slide further below their initial public offering price after the spacecraft manufacturer aborted an attempt to launch its Starship rocket.
The Texas-headquartered company's stock $(SPCX)$ declined just over 3% in premarket trading on Friday, on the heels of a 3% slide on Thursday, bringing its price down to $126.58 - almost $9 lower than when it launched on the Nasdaq on June 12. The stock is set to lose steam for the fifth day in a row in what was to be the first flight since going public.
SpaceX shares ended at $131.11 a share on Thursday, closing the $135 per-share IPO price for the first time.
SpaceX's Starship was due for take-off 90 minutes after its launch window opened at 6:45 p.m. Eastern on Thursday. Ten minutes later, CEO Elon Musk confirmed the mission was postponed, following an announcement during a livestream of the event that it had been cut short.
"Some of the engines didn't start, triggering an automatic launch abort. Now offloading propellant. Next launch attempt hopefully in a few days," he wrote in a post on X.
Musk later added: "To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed & replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week."
The plan for Starship's 13th flight was to address problems seen during its previous flight, and to carry and deploy 20 Starlink "Version 3" (V3) satellites.
The Federal Aviation Administration gave SpaceX the go-ahead for its launch on Monday after closing an investigation into the company's 12th flight, which following a safe lift-off, saw its Super Heavy booster crash into the Gulf of Mexico. The body ordered SpaceX to carry out an investigation that concluded with four actions, including software and hardware updates, to be completed.
Analysts at Bernstein, led by Douglas Harned, wrote in a note on Friday that they view Starlink as "the key enabler" of SpaceX's growth in the future, but that it also represents a point of risk. They expect 3,543 launches of the 400-foot rocket in 2031, with about nine in 10 for the purpose of Musk's proposed orbital data centers.
-Nora Redmond
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July 17, 2026 06:05 ET (10:05 GMT)
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