SpaceX stock falls after Starship test flight aborted

SpaceX's stock continued to fall in premarket trading on Friday, a day after the company aborted a test flight of its Starship rocket at the last second. An engine ignition failure at liftoff forced SpaceX to scrub the launch.

Founder Elon Musk stated on X that several engines failed to ignite, triggering an automatic launch abort sequence. Propellant is now being offloaded from the rocket, and the next launch attempt is hoped to be within a few days. The launch window was set for Thursday evening in Texas.

The company's stock was down 3.5% in premarket trading, following a more than 3% drop in after-hours trading on Thursday. SpaceX completed a record $85.7 billion IPO in June, and investors are closely monitoring its rocket test progress.

Musk later added that two Raptor engines will be removed and replaced, with a launch potentially rescheduled for early next week. This was the first test of the Starship V3 since the company's blockbuster IPO. A previous attempt in May failed during an uncontrolled landing in the Gulf of Mexico after five of its engines failed to reignite.