SpaceX Attempts Major Flight Test Again in Post-IPO Spotlight - Yahoo Finance

What the report says

Bloomberg, published by Yahoo Finance, reported that SpaceX planned to retry a major Starship flight test on Thursday from its Starbase site in South Texas after stopping a launch attempt the previous week. The launch was targeted for 5:45 p.m. local time and was described as the 13th Starship flight and the second flight of the rocket’s latest Version 3 design.

According to the report, the test vehicle was expected to carry upgraded Starlink satellites into space, with the satellites intended to later re-enter and burn up as part of the mission. The flight plan included ignition of the Super Heavy booster’s 33 Raptor engines, separation of the booster and spacecraft, a planned booster splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, Starship engine-relight testing, deployment of 20 Starlink satellites, and a Starship splashdown in the Indian Ocean roughly an hour after liftoff.

The retry comes after SpaceX halted the prior attempt at liftoff. Bloomberg reported that Elon Musk said on X that some engines did not ignite, causing an automatic abort, and that two engines would be replaced and removed before another attempt. The report said SpaceX shares fell after the scrub and continued to decline, highlighting how public-market investors are reacting to the company’s test-heavy development approach following its June IPO.

Starship is important to SpaceX’s longer-term plans for Starlink expansion, possible space-based infrastructure, and missions to the moon and Mars. Bloomberg noted that SpaceX also has NASA contracts tied to using Starship for a future lunar landing, but the vehicle still faces major technical milestones, including high-cadence reuse, in-space refueling and human-rating requirements.