The spacecraft successfully launched from Texas on July 24, 2026, and for the first time carried 20 upgraded Starlink satellites into orbit, but the company's shares continue to suffer due to commercialization risks.
SpaceX successfully launched its Starship spacecraft on its 13th test flight from the Starbase spaceport in Texas on July 24, 2026, and for the first time carried 20 upgraded Starlink internet satellites into suborbital space. According to a company statement on platform X, the satellites established contact with the existing Starlink network via laser communication. After the flight, the spacecraft landed in the Indian Ocean, and SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said, as reported by Finnish public broadcaster YLE, that this was the first time Starship had landed intact in the ocean.
Starship is a two-stage spacecraft built by SpaceX, led by billionaire Elon Musk. It consists of the Starship vehicle and the Super Heavy booster. The program aims to develop a fully reusable vehicle for missions to the Moon and Mars, as well as for commercial satellite launch services. According to data cited by YLE, roughly half of the previous test flights ended in failure, making the 13th flight, with no major issues recorded, one of the more successful in the series. SpaceX described the flight on its own channels as the "second flight of the next generation," suggesting a possible internal change in vehicle nomenclature, while media continue to use the ordinal number 13.
The highlight of this flight was the payload: 20 upgraded Starlink satellites temporarily placed into suborbital space. Starlink is SpaceX's satellite internet system, which already operates thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit and provides internet services worldwide, including areas without ground infrastructure. According to the company, the test satellites successfully connected to the existing network, which SpaceX describes as a valuable step toward future commercial use of Starship for satellite deployment.
The successful flight followed a failed launch attempt on July 16, 2026, which was postponed due to unfavorable weather conditions. According to comments on social media cited by ZeroHedge, one earlier abort was caused by the failure to ignite four engines. Despite the technical success of the 13th flight, SpaceX shares remain under pressure: according to ZeroHedge, citing Bloomberg, the company has lost more than a trillion dollars in market capitalization in recent weeks, and shares have fallen about 16 percent below the initial public offering price of $135. This flight was also the first since SpaceX went public.
The pressure on shares partly stems from a Bloomberg report stating that SpaceX is no longer accepting reservations for dedicated Falcon 9 launches after 2028. According to anonymous sources familiar with the matter, engineers have reportedly halted production of some non-reusable components for the Falcon rocket family. If Starship does not become operational by the end of 2028 and Falcon production is not extended, satellite operators could face a shortage of heavy launch capacity. Bloomberg notes that the company would likely retain the Falcon 9 for launches for the U.S. Department of Defense and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration).
Investment analysts are watching the situation cautiously. The chief investment officer of Tigress Financial Partners, as cited by ZeroHedge, said the latest launch setback "highlights the current execution risk around scaling Starship to high frequency and reuse, and reinforces that repeated delays could postpone revenues and margins." Nonetheless, the successful 13th flight provides the company with valuable data on the vehicle's behavior through air, space, and sea, as SpaceX stated in a post on platform X. The program's next steps have not been officially announced.
