SpaceX Update: Starship 13 Did Make It Off The Pad; But Lower Stage Suffered A "Hard Splashdown" -- As Not All Engines Re-Lit, On Re-Entry... More Work Ahead, For Elon.

It now looks as though that first stage -- which is designed to land softly, and thus be entirely re-usable after re-fueling. . . is damaged beyond repair, by a very hard, high velocity impact into the Gulf of Mexico waters. . . .

And so, with SpaceX stock trading around $115, or ~15% below its [silly] IPO price of $135 -- and about 46% below its post IPO high of $212. . . we next await the first quarterly results at the SEC EDGAR window on the night of August 4, 2026. But you may safely bet that the company has lost money -- tons of it. So the stock will decline -- from here. That is my confident prediction.

Here's the latest -- overnight, from CNBC:

. . .SpaceX launched its massive Starship rocket Friday evening from its company town and launch facility in Starbase, Texas, in a 13^th test flight and the first since the company’s record IPO last month.

The rocket’s Super Heavy booster detached from the Starship spacecraft about two minutes into the flight, and made a controlled splashdown in the Gulf.

In a statement following the flight, SpaceX said the landing was not perfect as the booster, “attempted to relight its engines for the landing burn,” but only a subset successfully ignited before the “hard splashdown. . . .”

Starship [is] the largest rocket ever built or flown, to be fully reusable and to lift more cargo for less cost into orbit. Starship is considered crucial for the company’s goal to vastly expand its Starlink satellite network, among other missions.

About 18 minutes into Friday’s test flight, SpaceX successfully deployed 20 of its new Starlink V3 satellites into orbit, a first chance for the company to see how they performed in flight. The satellites were intended to burn up after about 20 minutes. . . .

Onward, to an evening of. . . live Scottish bagpipes! Heh!

नमस्ते