SpaceX delays Starship 13th flight to July 24; shares at $118

SpaceX postponed the 13th Starship test flight to Friday, July 24. The launch window opens at 6:45 p.m. ET and runs for 90 minutes from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas.

On July 16 several Raptor engines on Booster 20 failed to ignite in the final second of the countdown, triggering what Elon Musk described on X as an “automatic launch abort.” Engineers removed and replaced two engines before clearing the booster for another attempt.

A planned retry on July 23 was called off because weather threatened the ground cameras SpaceX uses to photograph heat shield tiles during ascent. The company has said those images are necessary to document the vehicle’s reusability.

If the flight proceeds, the Super Heavy booster is expected to separate, perform a boostback burn and splash down in the Gulf of Mexico. The Starship upper stage is scheduled to deploy 20 Starlink V3 satellites-Starship’s first delivery of an operational payload-and then attempt a controlled entry and splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

SpaceX priced its June 12 IPO at $135 a share, valuing the company near $1.75 trillion. SPCX shares fell below the IPO price on July 17 and have traded under $135 since; the stock is around $118, about 23% below its debut price and roughly 40% below an all-time high near $202.

Regulatory filings tied to the Nasdaq listing disclosed SpaceX held 18,712 bitcoins, valued at about $1.29 billion in a May 20 filing. Tesla’s corporate holdings stood at 11,509 bitcoins; Tesla recorded a $112 million impairment loss on its holdings in the second quarter under standard accounting rules.

After the July 16 abort Musk wrote on X that SpaceX would try again “hopefully in a few days.” The company rescheduled the launch to Friday following the weather-related delay.