Space Exploration Technologies Corp.‘s (NASDAQ:SPCX) stock fell more than 2% Monday after the company sent Starship into orbit for the first time, while analyst Gene Munster said the market is “underappreciating the significance of the launch.”
Starship’s Size Makes Orbit a Milestone
Munster said in a post on X that Starship is roughly twice the size of Falcon Heavy, calling it significant that such a massive rocket reached orbit.
“That means they can get satellites to orbit cheaper and faster,” the analyst added.
SpaceX has said a mature Starship could carry as many as 60 V3 satellites per mission, more than 20 times the network capacity of a single Falcon 9 Starlink launch.
Starship Reaches Orbit Despite Engine Trouble
SpaceX sent Starship into orbit despite an engine shutdown that briefly threatened the mission, before the spacecraft deployed all 26 production Starlink V3 satellites.
SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot initially told viewers on the company’s livestream that Starship would not reach orbit after one of its six engines shut down early, before engineers determined the spacecraft could continue.
It marked the first orbital flight after 13 prior suborbital Starship missions.
Starlink Speeds Should Roughly Quadruple
Munster said Starlink speeds should roughly quadruple with the V3 satellites, adding that new pricing tiers are coming as average download speeds rise from about 150 Mbps to about 600 Mbps.
Each V3 satellite can provide about 1 terabit per second of downlink capacity, SpaceX said, and Monday’s batch of 26 could add roughly 26 Tbps to the network.
Price Action: Shares of SpaceX closed 2.16% at $145.47 on Monday and rose 0.42% in extended trading, according to Benzinga Pro.
Benzinga edge rankings indicate SpaceX’s stock has a positive price trend across the short, medium, and long term.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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