analysis of Flight 13, the most recent suborbital flight on July 24<\/a>. That flight achieved most of the company\u2019s announced milestones, including deployment of 20 functioning Starlink V3 satellites, which completed brief tests before reentering.<\/p>\nThe ship survived both reentry and splashdown, unlike on previous flights when the vehicle exploded after tipping over in the water. The ship is still floating in the Indian Ocean, and SpaceX has sent vessels to recover it and tow it back to land.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis flight actually went incredibly well. The heat shield appears to be very robust,\u201d he said. \u201cThe ship is still floating in the ocean, and we expect to recover the ship and bring it back for analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say things look very good, and that\u2019s why we, assuming we receive regulatory approval to do so, will attempt to catch the ship with the tower on the next flight, which is tentatively scheduled for the end of this month,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He downplayed concerns from some about the state of Starship\u2019s heat shield after splashdown. The ship\u2019s tiles had an array of white streaks that some have interpreted as evidence that hot gas was able to penetrate gaps between the tiles, undermining their integrity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to jinx it or anything, but I think I\u2019d consider the heat shield problem solved at this point,\u201d he said, adding the company wanted to inspect the ship floating in the Indian Ocean to confirm that assessment. \u201cBut I would say that we do not see any technical obstacles at this point to achieving full and rapid reusability.\u201d<\/p>\n
He did not address in his remarks the one setback on Flight 13, the failure to perform a controlled splashdown of the Super Heavy booster after its boostback burn ended early. It was the second consecutive flight in which the booster failed to make a controlled splashdown.<\/p>\n
He offered a bold prediction for Starship\u2019s future flight rate. \u201cWe expect the cadence of flights to be increasing rapidly and, probably a year from now, we will be doing at least one flight a day, possibly more,\u201d he said. That flight rate would be more than double the 165 Falcon 9 launches SpaceX achieved in 2025, 15 years into operation of that vehicle.<\/p>\n
Financials<\/p>\n
The discussion of Starship was a small part of an hourlong earnings call that also touched on its Starlink connectivity service and investments in artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
The company reported second-quarter revenue of $7.8 billion, nearly double the $4.1 billion the company had in the same quarter a year ago. The company had a net loss of $541 million in the quarter, compared with $1 billion in the second quarter of last year.<\/p>\n
Space, the smallest of the company\u2019s three business segments and the one that includes launch, reported $962 million in revenue in the quarter and an operating loss of $542 million. Connectivity, which includes Starlink, had $4.29 billion in revenue and operating income of $1.66 billion. SpaceX\u2019s AI segment had $2.56 billion in revenue and an operating loss of $1.26 billion.<\/p>\n
SpaceX said it spent $1.17 billion in capital expenditures, or capex, on space in the second quarter, primarily on Starship development, while its connectivity division had $1.37 billion in capex. Those were dwarfed by the AI division, which had $15.8 billion in capex to build computing infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Musk projected that SpaceX would achieve ARR, or annual recurring revenue, of $100 billion by December. He added in the call that the company was moving up by a year, from 2031 to 2030, when it expected to achieve $1 trillion in annual revenue, but did not disclose the breakdown in revenue among its space, connectivity and AI divisions at that point.<\/p>\n
While space is SpaceX\u2019s smallest division by revenue, it is essential to its connectivity and AI businesses because it will be used to deploy Starlink and AI satellites. That includes both Starlink V3 and the next generation of direct-to-cell satellites optimized for Starship.<\/p>\n
Musk said that the new Starlink V3 satellites will make a notable improvement in the overall Starlink service once a \u201ccritical mass\u201d of them are in orbit. He estimated that to be \u201con the order of about 1,000\u201d satellites. \u201cApproximately second quarter next year would be, I think, when we\u2019d get to that point.\u201d<\/p>\n
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