SpaceX’s mega rocket Starship in Starbase, Texas. (Picture credit: AP)
SpaceX called off a planned test flight of its Starship rocket on Sunday night, just minutes before launch, citing a technical problem with ground systems. The cancellation marked another setback for Elon Musk’s giant rocket, which has faced repeated failures in recent months.The launch had been scheduled for 6:30 pm local time (2330 GMT) from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in southern Texas. But around 15 minutes before liftoff, the company posted on X, “Standing down from today’s tenth flight of Starship to allow time to troubleshoot an issue with ground systems.” Earlier, the rocket’s upper stage had begun fuelling, giving the impression that preparations were on track. Musk himself had posted just an hour earlier, “Starship 10 launching tonight.” According to news agency AFP, road closures near the site suggest a new attempt could still take place on Monday or Tuesday, though SpaceX has not confirmed a timeline.The uncrewed hour-long test was intended to push the upper stage through fresh trials, sending it halfway around the world before re-entering over the Indian Ocean, while the booster stage would splash down separately.According to the New York Times, the mission would also have tested deploying mock-ups of SpaceX’s next-generation Starlink satellites and conducting a brief in-space engine burn, critical steps for future operations. Starship, which stands 403 feet (123 metres) tall, is the world’s most powerful rocket and is central to Musk’s plans for colonising Mars. Nasa is also relying on a modified version to land astronauts on the Moon under its Artemis III programme. However, reliability concerns have grown. As per AFP, the rocket’s upper stage has exploded during all three of its test flights this year, including two failures that scattered debris over Caribbean islands and another that broke apart after reaching space.Space analysts say the pressure is mounting. “I think there is a lot of pressure on this mission. We’ve had so many tests and it hasn’t proven itself reliable — the successes have not exceeded the failures,” Dallas Kasaboski of Analysys Mason was quoted as saying by AFP. Todd Harrison of the American Enterprise Institute was quoted by the New York Times as saying that while this flight was not yet “make or break,” the stakes were “the highest they’ve ever been for a Starship launch.”Despite the setbacks, SpaceX is increasing its test cadence, sticking to its “fail fast, learn fast” approach. The company has managed to successfully catch the lower-stage booster with its giant launch tower arms on three occasions, though Sunday’s test was not expected to attempt this manoeuvre.The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed last week that it had closed its investigation into May’s failed flight, stating no injuries had occurred. Musk, however, continues to insist that Starship will attempt uncrewed Mars missions next year, though experts remain sceptical.
