SpaceX aborts Starship test flight, sending stock lower

SpaceX scrubbed the launch of its Starship mega rocket on Thursday, with CEO Elon Musk pledging to make another attempt “hopefully in a few days.”

A 90-minute launch window opened at 6:45 p.m. ET, and within minutes, the reusable rocket maker announced on a livestream that it was standing down for the day.

“Some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort,” Musk wrote in a post on X.

Shares of SpaceX fell more than 3% in extended trading, sinking further beneath its IPO price of $135. The stock is on a five-day losing streak.

The rocket was poised for takeoff from SpaceX’s Starbase complex in South Texas when a hold was triggered on the booster, which “shut down the engines right as they were starting to ignite,” a SpaceX employee said on the livestream.

It would’ve been the first test flight of Starship V3, an upgraded version of its roughly 400-foot-tall rocket, since SpaceX’s blockbuster initial public offering last month.

An earlier V3 test launch in May did not go perfectly.

After a successful liftoff, several engines in the bottom stage of the rocket failed to reignite to help guide it to a soft landing, causing it to plummet into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered SpaceX to investigate the anomaly, and on Monday, the agency cleared Starship to fly again.

“The final mishap report cites two most probable root causes for the loss of the Super Heavy booster as heat effects on propulsion system components during the ascent and erroneous engine alarm system settings,” the FAA said in a statement.

SpaceX identified four corrective actions, including vehicle hardware and software updates, “to prevent a reoccurrence of the event,” the agency said.

As part of Thursday’s mission, Starship planned to ferry 20 functioning, next-generation Starlink satellites, which were expected to extend their solar arrays and antennas, then attempt to connect with the broader Starlink constellation, SpaceX said. The satellites are expected to “demise upon reentry approximately 20 minutes after deployment,” the company noted.

Investors are closely watching the 13th Starship test flight as the giant rocket is key to SpaceX ambitions to scale its Starlink satellite internet service, and to complete Artemis test flights with NASA as it aims for the U.S. space agency’s next moon landing.

Since they hit the public markets last month, SpaceX shares have skyrocketed, then fallen, and briefly dipped below their $135 IPO price on Wednesday. The stock continued to fall on Thursday, sliding more than 3% to close at $131.11.

With the IPO, SpaceX raised a total of $85.7 billion, including the underwriters’ option, making it the largest IPO on record.

— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed reporting to this article.