Shares of SpaceX ticked upward 1% to reach $116.35 during Thursday’s premarket session, recovering a portion of the substantial 6.7% decline witnessed in the prior trading day.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., SPCX
This modest recovery arrives as market participants focus their attention on the aerospace company’s thirteenth Starship test mission, scheduled to lift off during a 6:45 p.m. ET window from the company’s Starbase launch facility in Texas.
The stock has experienced downward momentum since its public debut, even after achieving notable milestones during its initial offering. Following a brief interruption to a seven-session decline on Tuesday, shares retreated once more on Wednesday. Valuation metrics remain a point of discussion — the company currently commands approximately 40 times projected 2026 revenue, a multiple unprecedented among trillion-dollar enterprises.
The initial Flight 13 launch window on July 17 was canceled at the final moment after multiple engines on the Super Heavy rocket booster failed their automated ignition sequence. During the subsequent week, SpaceX swapped out a minimum of two Raptor engines from the booster’s 33-engine array, based on statements from Elon Musk.
A fresh challenge has emerged: Tropical Storm Bertha. The company indicated on X that meteorological conditions represent “currently a significant watch item,” as the storm system delivers precipitation, elevated winds, and turbulent coastal waters to the Texas shoreline. Regional flash flooding and tropical storm-strength winds remain possibilities, according to National Hurricane Center reports.
Tonight’s mission carries an extensive list of objectives. The Super Heavy booster must successfully execute launch, ascent phase, stage separation, boostback burn sequence, and a precision landing burn at a designated offshore location in the Gulf of America.
The upper stage vehicle — Starship proper — will attempt to release 20 Starlink V3 satellites, conduct a single Raptor engine restart while in orbit, then perform a controlled atmospheric re-entry and ocean touchdown in the Indian Ocean.
A successful mission would represent additional progress toward achieving full Starship reusability. SpaceX estimates that reusability technology could reduce orbital access costs by approximately 90% when compared to its Falcon 9 launch vehicle.
RBC analyst Ken Herbert characterizes cost reduction as the central “flywheel” driving SpaceX’s value generation. According to Herbert, orbital AI data center development becomes impossible without Starship capability.
Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas has highlighted that SpaceX’s long-term vision includes executing thousands of Starship launches annually. To provide perspective, global space industry participants collectively completed approximately 330 missions throughout 2025 — with SpaceX responsible for over half that total.
Jonas suggested Starship might begin transporting commercial payloads as soon as Q4, though he emphasized that “space is hard, and future Starship and in-space anomalies should be expected.”
NASA has designated Starship as a critical component for forthcoming lunar landing operations, intensifying development schedule pressures.
Live coverage of the launch will be available through SpaceX’s official website beginning approximately 30 minutes prior to liftoff, with real-time updates shared via X.
SpaceX has installed at least two replacement booster engines following the July 17 launch cancellation.
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