Prediction markets expect SpaceX's next Starship test to end in a fireball, retail investors are fleeing, and the stock has shed nearly 30% in a month. That collision of fear and misread engineering might be exactly what serious buyers have been waiting for.

The SpaceX Starship, the most powerful and advanced super-capsule ever designed on this planet, could spark an explosion in space tourism and supercharge Space Race II.

SpaceX has launched the upgraded third version of its Starship rocket for the first time, though the test launch did not go perfectly for Elon Musk’s spaceflight company. The 407-foot rocket — the most powerful ever built — lifted off from SpaceX’s ...