SpaceX Reportedly Turns Away Falcon Customers As Starship Gamble Comes Into Focus

Yet another corporate media report based on anonymous sources is likely to draw an immediate response from Elon Musk. He has repeatedly used X this year to challenge reporting on Tesla and SpaceX.

Bloomberg reports that SpaceX has begun turning away satellite operators seeking dedicated Falcon 9 launches after 2028 and is no longer accepting future reservations. The report was based on people familiar with the matter, and the company has not confirmed it.

The report continued:

Engineers at Musk's rocket, satellite and artificial intelligence juggernaut have halted building some non-reusable components for the Falcon family, such as the rocket's massive upper stage, said one of the people.

. . .

SpaceX's plans could change for a number of reasons, including development setbacks with the futuristic Starship vehicle, the people said. The company is likely to still use the Falcon 9 for launches for the Department of Defense and NASA, some of the people said.

If Starship isn't operational by the end of 2028 and Falcon production isn't extended, satellite operators could face a shortage of heavy-lift launch capacity. That means a lot is riding on the mega-rocket Starship getting through the testing phase and achieving commercial viability.

Starship's execution risks weighed on SpaceX shares this week after last week's test-launch delay. Over the past several weeks, more than $1 trillion in market capitalization has been wiped out.

Shares have fallen about 16% below the $135 IPO price in recent days.

The CIO of Tigress Financial Partners noted that the latest Starship launch abort "underscores ongoing execution risk around ramping Starship to high-cadence, reusable operations, and reinforces that repeated delays could push out revenue and margin trajectories."

Could be wrong, but it seems that 4 engines didn’t light causing the abort sequence

Unfortunate scenario, but better safe than sorry! Hoping for another attempt tomorrow pic.twitter.com/o0BQ8Ekt7i

— Victor Kerman (@VictorKerman) July 16, 2026

Starship's Thursday launch attempt was postponed due to adverse weather conditions, with another attempt scheduled for later this evening. Check back for updates.