Key Highlights

  • SpaceX moved Starship Flight 14, its first orbital attempt, to Sept. 28 from Sept. 22 without giving a reason; shares fell over 2% on Sept. 18 before closing at $154.72 on Sept. 22.
  • Q2 Revenue rose 92% to $7.81 billion, Starlink subscribers doubled to 12.0 million, and capex hit $18.4 billion, mostly for AI.
  • The flight is planned to deploy the first 26 Starlink V3 satellites; success or failure is the next major test for the Nasdaq-100 newcomer.
  • SpaceX joined the Nasdaq-100 on July 7, 2026, weeks after a record June IPO priced at $135 a share; shares closed at $154.72 on Sept. 22, still above the IPO price despite recent volatility.

SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX)'s decision to push back the first orbital flight of its Starship megarocket by six days is, on the evidence so far, a scheduling setback rather than a change in strategy. But it lands on a stock that has quickly become one of the most closely watched names in the Nasdaq-100, and it puts a sharper spotlight on how much of the company's long-term story depends on the vehicle working.

On Sept. 17, SpaceX said it was now targeting Starship Flight 14 for "as early as Monday, September 28, pending regulatory approval," moving the launch from an earlier Sept. 22 target. The company gave no explanation for the delay. Shares fell more than 2% on Friday, Sept. 18, trimming their weekly gain to about 1%. The stock recovered some ground this week, closing at $154.72 on Sept. 22, up 1.89% on the day, and it remains above the $135 fixed price of its record June initial public offering.

For investors, the delay itself matters less than what comes next. A successful orbital flight would support the Economics of Starlink deployment, commercial launch and the company's lunar and Mars plans; a failure, or a longer slip, would test a Shareholder base that has already shown signs of nervousness.

Why Flight 14 Is a Landmark Mission

Starship has flown 13 times since its April 2023 debut, and every one of those flights was suborbital. Flight 14 is designed to change that. Based on SpaceX's mission description, the upper stage (known as Ship) is intended to complete about six orbits at an altitude of roughly 275 kilometers before a controlled splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of Chile, around 10 hours after liftoff from Starbase in South Texas.

The payload is also a first. SpaceX plans to deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites, the larger and more capable version of its broadband spacecraft that is designed to launch on Starship. "This will also mark the first time we plan to deploy Starlink V3 satellites into the constellation," the company said.

The mission is deliberately conservative in other respects. The Super Heavy booster is expected to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico, and no tower "catch" of either stage is planned.

What the Second-Quarter Numbers Show

SpaceX's first Quarterly Report as a public company, filed with the SEC on Aug. 4, showed a Business growing quickly while spending heavily. Revenue for the quarter ended June 30 rose 92% year over year to $7.81 billion. The net loss narrowed to $541 million from $1.0 billion a year earlier, and adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, rose 191% to $3.5 billion.

The company now reports three segments. Connectivity, which is mainly Starlink, generated $4.29 billion in revenue, up 66%, and $1.66 billion in operating income. Starlink subscribers doubled from a year earlier to 12.0 million, while average revenue per user held at $66 a month. The AI segment, which includes the Grok models and cloud compute agreements, produced $2.56 billion in revenue, up 247%, but still posted an operating loss of $1.26 billion. Space, which covers launch services and development, brought in $962 million, up 29%, and lost $542 million from operations as research spending on Starship increased.

Capital spending is the figure that stands out. Total capex reached $18.4 billion in the quarter, of which $15.8 billion went to the AI segment. SpaceX ended June with about $100 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities after its IPO, which the filing says generated net proceeds of about $85.7 billion, and a $25 billion bond issue. It also reported $47.5 billion in Backlog and announced an agreement to acquire AI coding company Cursor for $60 billion, which it expects to close in the third quarter.

How Starship Fits the Bigger Picture

Management has framed Starship as central to the whole enterprise. In the Aug. 4 release, SpaceX said it believes Starship will cut the cost of reaching orbit "by 99% or more relative to the historical average." The Starlink network already has more than 11,000 active satellites, and none of them are V3 units. Elon Musk has said he wants the constellation to eventually include 100,000 V3 satellites, which depends on Starship flying often and cheaply.

The two most recent flights went well. Flight 12 in May was the first suborbital mission of Starship V3, and Flight 13 in July deployed 20 production V3 satellites and demonstrated an in-space relight of a Raptor engine, according to the company.

The Market Backdrop for a New index Heavyweight

SpaceX joined the Nasdaq-100 on July 7, only weeks after listing, which made it a mandatory holding for Index Funds tracking the benchmark. That status has not protected the shares from volatility. The stock had lost more than 40% of its value from its peak close in late July.

Retail flows have been a particular focus. JPMorgan estimated about $570 million of retail selling over three weeks, including $250 million in a single week, which the bank described as the largest weekly decline it had seen. On the other side, Ron Baron, whose firm holds about $25 billion of SpaceX stock, has said he believes Starlink alone could generate a trillion dollars in revenue within a decade. That is an investor's projection, not company guidance.

Risks That Could Weigh on the Shares

  • Execution risk: Starship is still a test program. Another delay, an anomaly during the flight or a slower path to reusability would push back the V3 Starlink rollout that management is counting on.
  • Regulatory timing: SpaceX's own announcement makes the Sept. 28 date conditional on regulatory approval.
  • Spending and losses: AI capex of $15.8 billion in a single quarter, alongside continuing losses in the Space and AI segments, leaves the Investment case heavily dependent on future returns.
  • Governance and sentiment: Musk's roles across several companies, together with renewed speculation about closer ties with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) after his comments at the All-In Summit, add a layer of uncertainty that has nothing to do with rockets.

What Flight 14 Needs to Prove

The immediate catalyst is the Flight 14 launch window on Sept. 28. Investors will look for three results: whether Ship reaches orbit, whether it deploys the 26 V3 satellites, and whether it comes back through the atmosphere intact, with onboard cameras photographing the heat shield. After that, SpaceX expects to close the Cursor Acquisition during the third quarter, and its third-quarter results, for which a date has not yet been announced, will show whether Starlink subscriber growth and AI revenue can keep pace with the company's Capital spending.