Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) shares are trending on Thursday night.
Shares of the Elon Musk-led SpaceX fell 3.08% to $127.07 in after-hours trading on Thursday.
The drop in the stock in the late trading session follows an intraday decline of also 3.08%, where the stock closed at $131.11, according to Benzinga Pro data.
What Happened
On Thursday, SpaceX was set to launch a test that would deploy 20 next-generation Starlink satellites, which would have roughly 20 minutes to complete activation and connection tests before reentering Earth’s atmosphere.
Musk said the launch was aborted seconds before liftoff. “Some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort,” he posted on X, adding that the team was “now offloading propellant.”
Onscreen data showed four of Starship’s 33 engines failed to ignite, prompting the remaining 29 to shut down automatically.
In a separate post, Musk said two engines will be replaced “to be confident of a good flight.”
To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed & replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 17, 2026
Before Thursday’s launch, Cathie Wood-led ARK Invest posted on X that Starship’s success is critical to enabling orbital data centers, a market ARK estimates could reach $28.5 trillion.
No Starship, no orbital data centers. No orbital data centers, no potential $28.5 trillion market.
— ARK Invest (@ARKInvest) July 16, 2026
Before you watch tonight's launch, see what we think SpaceX's master plan is. https://t.co/OwNR3vBLCF
Early SpaceX investor Gavin Baker said in June that SpaceX’s next growth phase may hinge on deploying AI compute infrastructure into orbit, a concept he calls “orbital compute.”
Trading Metrics
SpaceX has a market capitalization of $1.73 trillion and 7.57 billion shares outstanding.
Over the past month, the stock has fallen 35.03%.
SPCX shares are trading below their $135 IPO price, a threshold the stock breached for the first time on Wednesday.
Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that SPCX has a negative price trend across all time frames.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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Photo Courtesy: Samuel Boivin on Shutterstock.com
