Following on yesterday's aborted test.*
From Barron's, May 22:
SpaceX launched its huge Starship on Friday, weeks ahead of the company’s massive initial public offering.
Lift-off occurred just after 6:30 p.m. Eastern time. It was the 12th Starship test and used the third version of the Starship, which stands some 408 feet tall, with the booster and upper stage stacked on top of one another. The booster has 33 rocket engines, which together produce more than 8,000 tons of thrust.
During Starship’s takeoff, the booster splashed down off the coast of Texas. It wasn’t recovered, as SpaceX expected. The upper stage, meanwhile, had several test objectives, including cargo deployment and heat shield development.
The launch can be re-watched here.
The upper stage had some engine issues, but reached its desired orbit at about 6:45 p.m. Eastern time, traveling at more than 26,000 miles per hour and about 100 miles above the Earth. The dummy satellites were deployed shortly after that; 22 went out Starship’s door, in a Pez dispenser-esque effect. The final two satellites were fitted with cameras to offer space-based views of the ship.
SpaceX was forced to scrub a launch attempt on Thursday. “The hydraulic pin holding the tower arm in place did not retract,” SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote in a post on X.
To be sure, an aborted launch wasn’t all that surprising. Creating reliable space technology isn’t easy, which is one reason SpaceX has a huge competitive moat. It already handles more than half of the world’s orbital launches with its Falcon 9 rocket.
There are development deadlines, though. Starship is involved with NASA’s Artemis missions, which aim to establish a permanent American presence on the moon. Starship has Artemis work to do in 2027....
....MUCH MORE
Also at Barron's, May 22:
SpaceX IPO Is a Game You Should Play at Your Own Risk*May 21:
The largest U.S. IPOs tend to underperform the market, with a not-insignificant share of those stocks delivering negative returns.
