SpaceX’s 14th test flight of its enormous Starlink spacecraft took off from the company’s test facilities in South Texas Monday this morning, blasting off in a huge and now-familiar enormous cloud of dust and debris. The world’s most powerful rocket roared into the sky, gaining speed just as planned.
After reaching just over 171 miles and a ground speed of over 16,000 mph, SpaceX’s Dan Huot made the official call.
“Starship is orbital,” he said, to rapturous cheers at SpaceX HQ. “Starship’s in space. It’s in orbit. That feels so good to say.”
The successful orbital insertion marks a major step in the right direction for SpaceX’s development of its massively ambitious launch platform after three years and 13 explosive, full-scale test launches — in addition to plenty of prototypes that were obliterated on the launchpad.
If you were expecting a major rally of the company’s stock after what it had set up as a masterstroke of success, though, you’ll be surprised.
Instead of jumping when markets opened just after the orbit insertion, the company’s stock has now fallen by about a percentage point. Any major spike, akin to a rocket launching into the sky, was notably absent.
After all, plenty of questions remain over the viability of the company’s massive launch platform and SpaceX still has to overcome plenty of major hurdles, like being able to reliable stick the landing for both its Super Heavy booster and Starship spacecraft, as well as proving that it can safely transport astronauts ahead of NASA’s ambitious return journeys to the Moon — deadlines that are coming up fast.
Then there’s the financial viability of its AI business, which is still burning through an enormous amount of cash. SpaceX’s valuation remains sky-high — just under $2 trillion — despite nagging concerns over its ability to ever make a profit.
At press time, SpaceX’s stock is actually down about three percent over the last five days, and even more since its IPO in mid-June.
It was a launch not without plenty of drama. Roughly 20 minutes into the flight, there was some confusion whether SpaceX would have the spacecraft attempt an orbital injection burn, with engineers furiously poring over the data. The loss of one vacuum Raptor engine clearly had them rattled and second-guessing whether to go on and try to have Starship circle the Earth six times.
The stakes are incredibly high. NASA is hoping to test the spacecraft ahead of its first Moon landing attempt in 2028. Being able to successfully reach orbit is a major hurdle SpaceX has finally overcome, setting the stage for an attempt to load astronauts into the spacecraft while in Earth’s orbit as soon as next year.
SpaceX also released 26 Starlink satellites, paving the way for the company to rapidly ramp up the build-out of its broadband satellite megaconstellation.
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