SpaceX has called off Sunday’s launch attempt of the Starship rocket. The team halted the countdown clock with 40 minutes to go and then scrubbed the launch a short while later.
The plan had been to launch the Starship on its 10th test flight at 7:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 24, and everything was looking good at the launch site in Starbase, near Boca Chica,Texas. But then SpaceX posted a message on its X account confirming the news that no one wanted to hear.
“Standing down from today’s tenth flight of Starship to allow time to troubleshoot an issue with ground systems,” SpaceX said in the message. It’s now targeting Monday, August 25, for the launch. Full details can be found on Digital Trends’ how-to-watch page.
The 121-meter-tall Starship, which comprises the first-stage Super Heavy booster and upper-stage Starship spacecraft, packs a colossal 17 million pounds of thrust at launch, making it the most powerful rocket ever to fly. The vehicle, which NASA is planning to use for crew and cargo missions to the moon, and possibly even to Mars, first launched in April 2023. The nine test flights to date have produced mixed results, though data from the tests has allowed SpaceX engineers to refine the design to edge the vehicle toward full certification.
Had Sunday’s launch gone ahead, the Super Heavy booster would have made a controlled landing in the ocean rather than return to the launch site as it has done in several of its earlier test flights. Notably, the booster will fly for the first time with three grid fins instead of the usual four — part of a new design that gives the fins a surface area about 50% larger than the previous design. SpaceX recently shared a photo showing their enormous size. Increasing their size allows the rocket to return to Earth at a more extreme angle, allowing for greater fuel efficiency, among other advantages.
On the 10th flight, whenever it takes place, the upper-stage spacecraft will perform a number of experiments aimed at enabling the vehicle to return to the launch site on a future flight. They include testing alternative materials for the heat-resistant tiles that protect the spacecraft during reentry.
