SpaceX has confirmed September 22 as the launch date for Starship’s 14th test flight, the first time the upper stage is expected to enter a stable Earth orbit. The mission, with a launch window opening at 8:15 a.m. Eastern time pending regulatory approval, is designed to complete six orbits over a 10-hour period and deploy production Starlink V3 satellites. SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen described it as Starship’s first 'revenue-generating flight.'
The flight follows the 13th test in July, which was considered successful after the booster landed offshore in the Gulf of Mexico and the upper stage deployed 20 Starlink V3 satellites before splashing down in the Indian Ocean. That mission also gave SpaceX a rare recovery of the upper stage, allowing engineers to examine its heat shield.
ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood posted on X that each Starship launch could generate about $1 billion in revenue, based on an estimate by ARK researcher Sam Korus that a single launch could add roughly 61 terabits per second of capacity to Starlink. Wood extrapolated that 10,000 flights per year could translate into $10 trillion in annual Starship revenue by 2030. Elon Musk responded, 'It’s not impossible,' though SpaceX has not officially endorsed that projection. Musk has separately said the company might reach approximately $1 trillion in revenue by 2030, while SpaceX reported $18.67 billion in revenue in 2025.
Starlink’s next-generation V3 satellites are central to the growth narrative. Each V3 satellite is designed to deliver 1 Tbps of downlink capacity, and Starship can eventually launch up to 60 V3 satellites per mission, compared with a much smaller Falcon 9 payload. That is more than 20 times the Starlink downlink capacity per launch. The V3 network is eventually expected to provide more than 100 times the bandwidth of Starlink’s current roughly 11,000-satellite network. SpaceX plans to begin deploying the V3 constellation this month, with initial reports indicating about 26 V3 satellites could be carried on the upcoming test flight.
SPCX stock traded at $144.25 on Wednesday, up about 6% from its June IPO price of $135, though it was down 0.58% after hours to $142.66. The stock has ranged from a high of $225.64 to a low of $104.83 since its debut. Analysts remain broadly bullish: Pivotal Research initiated coverage with a buy rating and a $220 price target, Oppenheimer’s Timothy Horan has an outperform rating and a $280 target, and the average analyst estimate is around $221. Longer term, Goldman Sachs projects SpaceX revenue could exceed $474 billion by 2030, while Morgan Stanley sees a range of $3.4 trillion to $3.5 trillion by 2040.
SpaceX’s latest results showed second-quarter revenue jumped 92% year over year to $7.2 billion. The company has also secured large artificial intelligence-related deals, including a $1 billion per month agreement, a $1.25 billion monthly deal with Anthropic, a $950 million deal with Google, and a $150 million deal with Reflection AI. Capital expenditure rose to $18.36 billion in Q2 from $10 billion a year earlier, with about $15 billion tied to the AI business, but the company holds more than $100 billion in cash. Analysts argue this spending phase will eventually peak, and Starship’s full reusability could improve unit economics as SpaceX seeks to retire Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.
