SpaceX has scrubbed the Starship launch for the second time in two days.
The launch from Starbase in southern Texas was called off with just 40 seconds on the countdown clock. The clock had been held at 40 seconds due to an anvil cloud in the area that had to clear in a certain timeframe as it presented a lightning risk to the rocket during flight. Having failed to move far enough away from the site, SpaceX scrubbed what would have been the Starship rocket’s 10th test flight.
“Standing down from today’s flight test attempt due to weather. Starship team is determining the next best available opportunity to fly,” SpaceX said in a post on X.
SpaceX has said it’s now targeting Tuesday, August 26 for the launch. Full details can be found on Digital Trends’ how-to-watch page.
Starship flights have been scrubbed before but this marks the first time for a launch to be scrubbed twice. Sunday’s liftoff was called off about 40 minutes from launch as SpaceX said it needed to “troubleshoot an issue with ground systems.” Everything was looking good for Monday’s launch until cloud formations in the area caused a problem.
The Starship first launched in 2023 and in doing so became the most powerful rocket ever to fly, packing around 17 million pounds of thrust as it left the launchpad.
When fully tested and certified, NASA wants to use the Starship for crew and cargo missions to the moon. The Artemis III mission, currently set for 2027, will use a modified version of the Starship spacecraft to put the first astronauts on the moon since the last Apollo mission in 1972. But Starship still faces a great deal of testing, so the Artemis III could face delays.
Speaking on space news site NASASpaceflight shortly before Monday’s planned launch, SpaceX chief Elon Musk spoke of how in the far future, the rocket, or a variation of it, could be used to populate Mars or other far-off planets.
