SPCX
Not a perfect flight. Still a useful one.
Starship Flight 14 didn’t exactly stick the landing for a flawless victory lap, but it did check a lot of boxes that matter for SpaceX. The rocket reached orbit, deployed 26 operational Starlink v3 satellites, and returned the upper stage in a controlled splashdown in the Pacific.
That’s the kind of progress analysts love to squint at and say, “Okay, now we’re getting somewhere.” BofA Securities’ Ronald Epstein kept his Buy rating and $235 price target, arguing the mission was a key step toward Starship reusability.
The ugly bits are still there
Of course, SpaceX didn’t suddenly become a rocket-shaped Swiss watch. Epstein flagged some hiccups:
- Engine relighting problems, similar to Flight 13
- An unplanned engine shutdown that cut the mission short by several hours
- No plan yet to recover Starship after flight
Still, the company got enough data to keep the momentum narrative alive. And in aerospace, momentum is basically rocket fuel for investor confidence.
Why investors should care
The big prize here is rapid reuse. If SpaceX can validate the heat shield and eventually get both stages back to the launchpad, the economics of Starship get a whole lot more interesting.
Epstein said the next flight could include the first return-to-launchpad landing of the Super Heavy booster and/or the upper stage — the kind of milestone that would make Starship feel less like a prototype and more like a product.
Big picture: this wasn’t a perfect launch, but it was a pretty convincing proof point that SpaceX is still inching toward the reusable-rockets dream investors have been paying attention to for years.