In September, SpaceX's Starship achieved the milestone the program had been chasing: the vehicle made it into orbit for the first time.

It was the rocket's 14th successful launch overall, but the first to reach orbit, and it was not an empty demonstrator — the upper stage was carrying 26 Starlink satellites.

The Motley Fool notes the payload matters because it is the first concrete demonstration that Starship can do revenue-generating work rather than just fly test profiles.

Hot staging — the maneuver in which the upper stage's Raptor engines ignite to push the ship away from the Super Heavy booster — marked a critical point in the flight.

For a program built around a fully reusable, heavy-lift ship, turning a test article into an operational satellite-delivery flight in a single step is a notable jump.

Yahoo is highlighting an onboard camera sequence of the flight that captures the flight's most dramatic moment in unusual detail: the critical 'hot-staging' maneuver, seen from the rocket itself.

The video shows the upper stage's Raptor engines igniting to push Starship away from the Super Heavy booster on its journey to space — the moment that decides whether the stacked vehicle separates cleanly and the mission can continue. It is worth watching for the engineering alone.

The result is surprising less because Starship flew than because of what it did: a reusable rocket with more than 100 metric tonnes of payload capacity in its reusable configuration actually delivering satellites to orbit turns a development program into a business line.

According to The Motley Fool, SpaceX shares — trading under ticker SPCX at $163.42 — have been rallying in recent weeks, with momentum picking up after the launch.

The article reports the stock up 0.52% on the day, within a 52-week range of $104.83 to $225.64 and a market cap the outlet pegs at $2.2 trillion using publicly traded shares outstanding.

The logic for bulls is simple: Starship is key to executing SpaceX's growth strategy, and the flight shows off the rocket's effectiveness and revenue potential.

The stakes reach far beyond this launch. According to The Motley Fool, CEO Elon Musk believes SpaceX could be generating as much as $1 trillion in revenue by around the end of the decade, and analysts at Citi largely agree, projecting the company will reach that figure by 2031.

The outlet reports SPCX trading around $163.42, up 0.52% on the day, with a market cap it calculates at $2.2 trillion.

But the same analysis flags the risk: the company remains unprofitable, is spending heavily on artificial intelligence and other operations that will require substantial cash infusions, and at a valuation north of $2.1 trillion — per The Motley Fool — much future growth is already priced in.

The author concludes the launch is great news for the business, but not by itself a reason to buy at the current price. Next up for watchers: whether Starship can repeat orbital flights and scale Starlink delivery cadence.