SpaceX has pushed the 13th flight test of its Starship rocket to Friday, July 24, with liftoff set for 5:45 p.m. CT.

Weather in South Texas blocked ground tracking of the vehicle’s heat shield during ascent, a key data point for the reusable rocket program.

The company needed clear ground imagery of the heat shield at higher dynamic pressure, and Thursday’s forecast ruled that out. Visibility looks better for the rescheduled window at Starbase, Texas.

A Second Attempt After Engine Trouble

Flight 13 already carries one scrub. Engineers aborted a July 16 attempt after several Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster misfired at ignition.

Meanwhile, crews replaced hardware and stood down for days before Thursday’s weather scrub added a fresh delay. Consequently, SPCX shares have stayed under pressure since economist Peter Schiff issued his stock crash warning this week. Furthermore, Google’s SpaceX stake, built from a 2015 investment, shows how much institutional money now rides on the outcome.

SpaceX Stock Slips After Hours

SPCX fell 1.73% in after-hours trading once SpaceX confirmed the delay. The stock reversed a roughly 3% gain from the regular session. SPCX has dropped 27% since its June initial public offering (IPO).

Cathie Wood named SpaceX her favorite stock and shared her boldest prediction yet just two days earlier. However, that timing shows how split sentiment around the company has become.

Elon Musk also said SpaceX’s engineering data will help train Grok’s next model, a deal that links the rocket maker’s fortunes to Musk’s wider business empire.

What Friday’s Launch Still Needs to Prove

Beyond the heat shield imagery, Starship must complete stage separation and a boostback burn. The booster will then attempt a landing burn over open water. Additionally, the upper stage aims to deploy 20 Starlink V3 satellites, which will extend solar arrays and link to the broader Starlink network.

Six of those satellites carry cameras to photograph the heat shield’s tile performance during reentry. SpaceX painted some tiles white to simulate missing coverage and create clear imaging targets for those cameras. New load-sensing tiles will also measure stress on the airframe as Starship flies at a higher dynamic pressure than earlier flights.

Engineers changed the booster’s engine relight sequence after five of its 33 engines misfired during Flight 12’s boostback burn.

Earnings Report Looms for SpaceX Investors

Investors are also watching Tesla’s second-quarter earnings, which already have Musk-linked stocks swinging this week.

SpaceX posts its first quarterly results as a public company on August 4. That report should show what Starship’s development costs mean for the balance sheet. Friday’s 90-minute window opens at 5:45 p.m. CT, with a livestream expected roughly 30 minutes before liftoff.

Source: BeInCrypto