Starship debuted in April 2023 and has flown 11 more suborbital flights since, most recently on May 22. That Flight 12 test was the first mission for Starship Version 3 (V3), an advanced iteration of the megarocket that was many months in the making. ( Flight 11, the last launch of Starship V2, lifted off in October 2025.)

After a rough try in May and a scrubbed launch last week, SpaceX will attempt to launch Starship on its 13th test flight Thursday. The launch follows a scrubbed attempt on July 16 — canceled because some of the engines didn't start,

The company said it would try again Friday, when “visibility is forecast to be ideal.”

Alphabet disclosed in its earnings report that it had roughly $94.1 billion worth of SpaceX stock at the end of the second quarter. Tesla reported it held about $3 billion worth of SpaceX shares; Nvidia and Cisco are also likely shareholders. SpaceX’s list of shareholders includes a who’s who of big tech companies.

SpaceX will launch its next Starship, carrying the first V3 Starlink satellites, on the Flight 13 test mission Friday (July 24) after delays.

Applied Aerospace & Defense is in the rare position of supplying SpaceX. The stock has other things going for it as well.

SpaceX has set the stage for one of the largest share unlocks in capital markets history, with as much as $116 billion worth of stock becoming eligible for sale for the first time next month. Restrictions preventing some insiders from selling as many as 911.

SpaceX’s stock climbed on Tuesday to snap a bruising seven-session losing streak. The stock shed 21% during that period, creating a juicy buying opportunity for investors, according to Macquarie analysts led by Paul Golding.

A surge in short interest coincides with a sell-off in SpaceX stock that has weighed on the portfolios of individual investors who own any fund tracking the hugely popular Nasdaq-100 index.

There's no guarantee SpaceX will reach this $225 target, but it does help investors weigh whether they're willing to deal with the risks to achieve the reward.