Starship’s redesign launch nears as SpaceX faces IPO-critical test

Starship’s redesign launch follows a scrub as SpaceX eyes IPO timing

SpaceX is preparing to attempt a launch of a heavily redesigned Starship after scrubbing a planned flight at the last minute, setting up a test that analysts say could carry extra weight as the company heads toward an anticipated initial public offering. The attempt comes on Friday, just days after the company postponed a Thursday launch plan, NPR reported.

The upgraded rocket is intended to incorporate major changes aimed at improving performance and future capability. In addition to a new configuration of engines, the redesigned Starship will feature upgraded avionics and other hardware including satellites and test ports intended for a future refueling system. SpaceX has described such advances as part of a longer-term effort to expand where Starship can operate, potentially beyond near-Earth flights.

Elon Musk has said the long-term goal is for Starship to return to the launch pad so the full system can be reused almost instantaneously, reducing the cost of launches, NPR reported. The company’s broader roadmap also ties Starship development to activities such as launching larger satellites for its Starlink service, serving as a lunar lander for NASA, and acting as a possible vehicle for Mars missions.

For investors and market watchers, the upcoming test is being framed as more than a routine development milestone. Franco Granda, a senior researcher who covers SpaceX for the data firm PitchBook, said the launch is “super important for the IPO” and added that if the flight goes badly, excitement for the offering could “diminish quite dramatically.” He also said SpaceX will want to “get this one right,” even though failures in tests often don’t determine what happens next.

SpaceX’s latest financial disclosures underscore how much is riding on Starship’s progress, NPR reported. The filings show the company is spending billions of dollars per year developing Starship, with that work eating into profits from its launch business. NPR reported that the launch business operated at a $662 million loss in the first quarter of 2026.

Those disclosures also put specific spending figures on Starship development. NPR reported that SpaceX spent a little over $3 billion on Starship in 2025, and that it spent $930 million in the first quarter of 2026. NPR also quoted language from the document describing how any failure or delay in scaling Starship development or achieving the needed launch cadence, reusability and capabilities could delay or limit SpaceX’s growth strategy.

SpaceX’s upcoming attempt represents the third major version in a development sequence that has had multiple setbacks. The first version launched in April 2023 but failed to separate from its booster, after which it tumbled out of control before exploding; it took three tries before the rocket reached space. NPR reported that the second version saw multiple failed attempts throughout 2025, though its final two launches went as planned.

A redesigned third version is described by observers as both ambitious and more refined. Scott Manley, an engineer and YouTuber who tracks Starship’s development, said the latest version appears more refined and that changes made after earlier failures—such as integrating previously added hardware—have been folded into the design. Manley said it looks “more like a rocket and less like a bunch of grain silos welded together,” and NPR reported he is especially watching the performance of the new Raptor 3 engines.

While the engines have been tested extensively on the ground, observers say their real challenge will come in flight. Manley said the company does not know yet how the redesigned Raptor 3 engines will perform under flight circumstances, NPR reported, noting they have not flown in space before.

Even if the newest version flies as expected, making Starship work as a business at scale remains a longer effort. NPR reported that the spacecraft’s heat shield has not yet proved durable enough to survive multiple trips through the atmosphere, and that Starship has not yet attempted a pad landing in Brownsville, Texas. Tim Farrar, president of TMF associates, which analyzes mobile satellite services, said Starship remains a complex multi-part problem, telling NPR it is “a multidimensional problem that they haven’t actually solved yet.”

Farrar also argued that valuing SpaceX at well beyond a trillion dollars requires confidence in developments that go beyond what the company has already achieved. “You can’t justify a valuation well in excess of a trillion dollars based on what SpaceX is doing today,” he said, adding that investors would need to believe Musk will come up with something “much bigger than that,” NPR reported.