SpaceX completed Starship's first orbital flight ahead of schedule. Its stock price fell 2%.

SpaceX completed the 14th test flight of the Starship rocket ahead of schedule after one of the engines failed. This mission marked an important milestone for the company: it was the first time the spacecraft reached orbit. In addition, as planned, the spacecraft successfully deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites. However, SpaceX shares, which had been rising following the Starship launch, later began to decline and closed down 2.2% at the end of trading on September 28.

One of the Starship’s six engines, called the Raptor, shut down shortly after liftoff, SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said during the live broadcast of the launch. This forced SpaceX engineers to temporarily cancel the attempt to reach orbit. However, after analyzing the data collected, it was decided to continue the flight.

As a result, the Starship upper stage reached orbital velocity for the first time and entered Earth orbit. Bloomberg notes that none of the previous tests had reached this stage.

However, SpaceX decided to cut the mission short: it was originally supposed to last about 10 hours, but after about three hours, Starship re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and made a controlled splashdown near Hawaii. The rocket managed to complete only two orbits around Earth instead of the planned six, the BBC reports. The company did not specify what caused it to change its plans. Presumably, the cause was the engine failure mentioned above, according to Bloomberg.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk called the launch a success on his X page. During the test, the rocket deployed 26 upgraded Starlink V3 satellites, which have already connected to the main Starlink network, Houat said. These satellites offer higher performance and are expected to increase the satellite network’s bandwidth. SpaceX CFO Bret Jonsen said that this flight “will generate revenue”—specifically through the expansion of the Starlink constellation.

Analysts at Bernstein agree that the increase in the number of Starship launches and the expansion of Starlink will allow SpaceX to significantly boost its revenue from the communications business. They expect that figure to grow from $17.5 billion in 2026 to $64 billion in 2031, according to MarketWatch.

Bernstein's forecast suggests that Starlink will capture "virtually 100%" of the satellite broadband market in certain regions, while also increasing its share among broadband users who are not connected to fiber-optic networks. The bank’s analysts believe that the number of Starlink subscribers will double this year.

At the same time, KeyBanc points to weak subscriber growth. According to their data, the average number of Starlink users in August fell by 17% year-over-year. Analysts estimate that Starlink will gain 1.75 million new subscribers in the third quarter, net of churn, while Wall Street’s consensus forecast is 2.3 million.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor