SpaceX’s latest growth opportunity has nothing to do with Starship

SpaceX’s latest launch highlights another growth opportunity for the company, and it has nothing to do with Starship.

On Tuesday, SpaceX launched hardware for Northrop Grumman’s mission to extend the life of satellites in orbit. Elon Musk’s rocket and AI company has lots of opportunities, from the mundane—launching satellites into space and providing space-based broadband business—to those straight out of sci-fi, like low-cost orbital data centers and travel to Mars. But as the space economy grows, there will be other opportunities, and the latest launch showcases one of them—maintaining space infrastructure.

That was the goal of Northrop MRV-MEP mission, which SpaceX launched into “geosynchronous transfer orbit” Tuesday from Cape Canaveral. Northrop’s “Mission Robotic Vehicle,” or MRV, and its “Mission Extension Pod,” or MEP, are used for space maintenance to extend the life of satellites in orbit. The MRV can do inspection and repair. The MEP can be attached to maneuver satellites. It might not be a defining mission for SpaceX, but it’s an interesting one, which SpaceX technology facilitates.

Tuesday’s launch marked the 32nd—and final—launch for the Falcon 9 first-stage booster. Geosynchronous orbit is harder to get to than low-Earth orbit, and this final one has taken its toll due to the additional performance needed to launch these payloads, the company said.

The future, however, is SpaceX’s huge fully-reusable rocket, Starship. Its 13th test flight is scheduled for July 23. Starship can cut the costs of reaching orbit by 90%. Lower costs are key if SpaceX hopes to build an orbital AI business. AI potential underpins SpaceX’s $1.6 trillion valuation, which is the main reason investors will tune in to Thursday’s event.

Shares of the rocket and AI company were up in premarket trading, but gains faded, leaving shares at $122.66, down 0.7% after the market open. In comparison, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2%.

SpaceX stock is trying to make it two straight gains. On Tuesday, shares snapped a seven-day losing streak, managing a 3.1% rise. Still, coming into Wednesday trading, shares were down almost 40% from a record closing high of $201.80 reached on June 16, a few days after SpaceX’s record-setting initial public offering.

Write to Al Root at [email protected]