Elon Musk's SpaceX company canceled Sunday's planned launch of the Starship rocket from Texas because of a problem with the launch pad, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
This was to be the rocket's tenth mission and the cancellation of the launch will delay some long-sought results in its development after earlier tests ended in failure.
The 70.7-meter-long superheavy booster and 52-meter-long upper stage were installed at Starbase, SpaceX's launch pad in Texas, and fueling had begun before the planned launch, scheduled for 7:35 p.m. local time on Sunday (2:35 a.m. Bulgarian time today).
About half an hour earlier, however, „SpaceX“ announced on the X platform that it was canceling „today's tenth flight of „Starship“, so that an issue with the ground systems can be resolved“.
The company did not specify when it would make another launch attempt, but similar delays in the past have been resolved within days.
NASA hopes to use „Starship“ as early as 2027 for its first manned flight to the moon since the „Apollo“ program. The rocket is also at the center of Musk's ambitions for a flight to Mars, but over the past year „Starship“ has encountered a series of problems.
This year, two test flights ended in failure early in the on the flight, and in June a ground test ended in a huge explosion that sent debris all the way to neighboring Mexico.
Nevertheless, “SpaceX“ continues to intensively produce new rockets for test flights.