Elon Musk Says SPCX Could Reach 10,000 Starship Launches Annually by 2030: ‘Still Tiny’ Compared With Air Travel
Elon Musk Says SPCX Could Reach 10,000 Starship Launches Annually by 2030: ‘Still Tiny’ Compared With Air Travel
Badar ShaikhFri, August 21, 2026 at 6:44 AM UTC
0
Space Exploration Technologies Corp.(NASDAQ:SPCX) CEO Elon Musk says that the commercial spaceflight company has targeted conducting 30 launches of the Starship rocket per day by 2030.
10,000 Launches Annually
Mach 33 co-founder Aaron Burnett on X on Thursday said that “1,000 launches/reentries is the goal,” quoting a post by President Donald Trump‘s Science and Technology Advisor Michael Kratsios, who outlined the administration’s new space launch rules targeting 1,000 launches annually by 2030. “FAA was forecasting 385 by 2030 in their bull case,” Burnett added.
Read Also:
Rocket Lab CEO Says $8 Billion Iridium Deal Won’t Take on Elon Musk’s Starlink — Don’t Intend to 'Directly Compete,’ But Plans Something That 'Hasn’t Been Seen Before’
“This is a statement by administration to start taking launch scale seriously,” Burnett said, adding that SpaceX had said it was targeting 9,000 launches annually. His comments prompted a response from Musk, who reaffirmed bullish sentiments on Starship.
“We’re aiming to reach 30+ Starship launches/day in 2030, which is ~10k annualized,” Musk said, but acknowledged that the number was “tiny” compared to “airplane flights” per day.
2,000% Growth May Not Be Enough
On the same day, Musk also predicted that SpaceX, as well as EV giant Tesla Inc.(NASDAQ:TSLA), will record major revenue growth by the end of the decade, as he responded to commentator Jon Elrichman, who said that SpaceX revenue would grow by 2,090%, while Tesla would record 119% growth.
“I know this sounds crazy right now, but I think both SpaceX and Tesla will exceed these estimates,” Musk said in his response to Elrichman.
Starship Flight 14 Prediction
The comments come as Musk said that SpaceX could perform the first-ever mid-air catch of an upper-stage rocket with Starship flight 14, after the company successfully conducted the rocket’s 13th flight test, which ended with a splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
Advertisement
The company will use its “Mechazilla” tower at Starbase, Texas, to catch the rocket with the tower’s “chopsticks” arms during the next flight test. SpaceX has previously caught the booster stage of the rocket.
Price Action: SpaceX shares declined 0.11% to $133.85 during overnight trading on Thursday.
Read Also:
JPMorgan Says Tesla Is Confident of Scaling Cybercab Operations, Touts Future Models Based on Platform—FSD V15 a ‘Step-Change’ From Previous Versions
Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.
Photo courtesy: Samuel Boivin / Shutterstock.com
"ACTIVE INVESTORS' SECRET WEAPON" Supercharge Your Stock Market Game with the #1 "news & everything else" trading tool: Benzinga Pro - Click here to start Your 14-Day Trial Now!
Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga:
SPACEX (SPCX): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article Elon Musk Says SPCX Could Reach 10,000 Starship Launches Annually by 2030: ‘Still Tiny’ Compared With Air Travel originally appeared on Benzinga.com
© 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Source: “AOL Money”
