SpaceX Flies Starship for the First Time Since Its Public Listing

SpaceX launched its Starship rocket on Friday and completed the vehicle's 13th test flight, its first since the company's stock market debut in June, with the upper stage splashing down in the Indian Ocean, Deutsche Welle reported. About 18 minutes after liftoff the company deployed 20 of its new Starlink satellites, according to CNBC, though it again had problems relighting the vehicle's engines and remains short of the full, rapid reusability it is targeting.

The flight carried unusual weight because SpaceX is now a public company answerable to shareholders. Its June listing on the Nasdaq raised close to $86 billion, but the stock has since fallen in four of the past five weeks and is down roughly 43% from its mid-June peak, a decline that made this a closely watched test of whether operational progress can steady investor confidence.

The listing is an early case in a series of very large private technology firms testing public markets. How SpaceX is valued now that its engineering setbacks and successes are priced in real time will shape how investors approach the frontier-tech and artificial-intelligence companies preparing to list.