SpaceX falls further in premarket after Starship test flight aborted

SpaceX's stock fell further on Friday, a day after it aborted a test flight for its Starship rocket at the last second, and amid choppy post-IPO trading.

The aerospace giant was expected to launch its Starship mega rocket within a 90-minute window at 5:45 p.m. in Texas on Thursday, but an engine ignition failure forced SpaceX to scrub the launch.

"Some of the engines didn't start, triggering an automatic launch abort," billionaire founder Elon Musk said in a post on X. "Now offloading propellant. Next launch attempt hopefully in a few days."

SpaceX was last seen down 3.5% in premarket trading, after falling more than 3% in after hours trading.

Musk later added in a post that 2 Raptors will be removed and replaced, and that a launch is planned again for early next week.

Investors are watching the company's rocket tests more closely after it raised a record $85.7 billion in the biggest initial public offering ever in June, pricing shares at $135. SpaceX's shares have soared and dipped since its stock market debut.

SpaceX's stock since it went public in June.

This was SpaceX's first test flight of Starship V3 since its blockbuster IPO. A previous attempt in May failed after sending the Starship upper stage toward the Indian Ocean. The Super Heavy booster failed to make a controlled landing in the Gulf of Mexico after five of its 33 Raptor engines failed to reignite.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ordered an investigation into the mishap and on Monday cleared the company so it could continue its test trials.