Space Exploration Technologies Corp (NASDAQ:SPCX), popularly known as SpaceX, announced that its launch vehicle Starship (designed to carry over 100 metric tones) took flight on Monday and reached orbit on Flight 14.
"The launch demonstrated the first successful orbital flight of the Starship upper stage, deployment of 26 operational Starlink v3 satellites via Starship’s ‘Pez dispenser’ interface, and re-entry from orbit resulting in controlled splashdown in the Pacific Ocean," BofA Securities analyst Ronald Epstein wrote in a note.
The Space Exploration Technologies Analyst: Epstein maintained a Buy rating and price target of $235.
The Space Exploration Technologies Thesis: Flight 14 marked an improvement over the performance of Flight 13, including completing a successful soft landing of the Super Heavy booster stage, Epstein said.
Check out other analyst stock ratings.
The analyst noted the following shortcomings:
- There were issues in engine relighting similar to Flight 13
- The mission was cut short by several hours due to an unplanned shutdown of one of the Starship’s engines
Despite these problems, Flight 14 was "a key demonstration of Starship’s ability to reach orbit, deploy operational payloads, and return both upper and lower stages in controlled fashions," he stated.
The heat shield of the upper stage is key to validating Starship’s rapid reusability, the analyst stated. While Space Exploration Technologies does not have plans to recover Starship after its flight, cameras on the deployed Starlink satellites will provide valuable data to the company on the performance of the heat shield, he noted.
Due to this, Flight 14 marks a critical step to proving out Starship’s reuse, Epstein added.
What About Flight 15? The plan for the next Starship flight has not been finalized but could add to the success of Flight 14 with the "first return to launchpad landing of the Super Heavy booster and/or the Starship upper stage," the analyst stated.
The launchpad landing of the upper and lower stages "would represent significant progress toward Starship’s reusability," he further wrote.
SPCX Stock Price Activity: SpaceX shares are trading higher by 2.23% at $148.72 at the time of publication on Tuesday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Login to comment