Al Root

SpaceX launched its eighth test of its huge Starship launch vehicle on Thursday.

As usual, it was exciting. Things didn't go perfectly, though.

The roughly 400-foot-tall launch vehicle, with a 240-foot booster stage and 160-foot upper stage, lifted off at about 6:30 p.m. Eastern time.

The launch tower SpaceX calls "Mechazilla" caught the booster again. It was the third catch in four tries.

It's an impressive feat -- snatching a rocket out of midair. "That will never get old," said a company spokesperson anchoring the test, which left from SpaceX's Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX catches the booster to aid in more rapid reusability. The rocket can be serviced upright at the launch site. Of course, SpaceX's ultimate goal is to reach Mars. There is no infrastructure on Mars. It will be easier to catch and relaunch than build all the infrastructure SpaceX has on Earth.

During the seventh test, the rocket's upper stage exploded spectacularly and burned up in the atmosphere over Turks and Caicos. This time, SpaceX lost the upper stage again before completing all mission objectives. The craft lost "attitude control -- it was spinning in space before communication was lost.

"We fly to learn and we're learning a lot...progress isn't always linear, " added the anchor shortly before SpaceX's broadcast ended.

Starship is the largest rocket system ever built. Its larger size helps reduce the cost of carrying a payload to space. It is also designed to be fully reusable. Today, SpaceX reuses boosters, but the upper stage of its Falcon rockets isn't returned.

SpaceX has blown up many rockets over its lifetime. However, its rapid pace of testing and iteration has yielded lower costs to reach space.

Space, however, remains tough for investors to navigate in terms of finding lasting financial gains. Shares of Intuitive Machines dropped 23% to $8.67 early Friday, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.2%.

Shares also fell 20% Thursday after the company experienced some difficulties landing its Athena spaceship near the moon's south pole. The craft touched down around noon Eastern time, but NASA's broadcast of the landing finished without clear information about the status of the craft -- whether it was upright and if all systems were operating as intended.

At a NASA news conference later Thursday, Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus said that he didn't believe Athena was upright.

Athena was the company's second landing. Its Odysseus lander touched down on the moon in February 2024. NASA called the Odysseus mission a success. It was the first time the U.S. had landed on the moon in 50-plus years. Still, Odysseus tipped over on landing.

"Intuitive Machines and SpaceX pushed the boundary of human space development forward yesterday," wrote Benchmark analyst Josh Sullivan in a Friday report. Both had issues, but "SpaceX will try again, Intuitive Machines will try again."

SpaceX is privately held, but Sullivan rates Intuitive Machines stock at Buy, and has a $16 price target. He called the stock price moves an overreaction.

Overall, seven of nine, or almost 80% of analysts covering Intuitive Machines shares, have Buy ratings. The average analyst Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 55%. The average analyst price target for Intuitive Machines' stock is about $18.

Operating in space isn't easy, and investors interested in space-related stocks have to be ready for development hiccups -- and stock volatility.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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March 07, 2025 10:12 ET (15:12 GMT)

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