SpaceX’s colossal Starship rocket nearly took off for a test flight on Thursday but was halted just seconds from launch. Some engines failed to ignite, prompting an abort amidst swirling smoke and vapor.
Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, announced plans to replace two engines to ensure a successful flight. This adjustment precedes Starship’s ambitious mission from Texas, designed to circle halfway around the globe. Standing at an impressive 407 feet (124 meters) and equipped with 33 powerful engines, Starship holds the title of the largest and most potent rocket in the world.
During the launch webcast, the countdown revealed engine ignition three seconds before the scheduled liftoff. Filmed via drone footage, viewers saw that four engines failed to activate. Subsequently, the remaining 29 engines shut down, preventing the rocket from leaving the launch pad. This marked the first instance of such a last-moment abort for a full-scale Starship.
The SpaceX team quickly moved to drain the rocket’s fuel following the abort.
Musk communicated via X that the “most probable launch timing is early next week.”
Everything was going SpaceX’s way, even the weather, until the partial engine ignition. In the end, the rocket’s automatic launch system worked as planned by halting everything. Too few operating engines could have doomed the launch. Some earlier Starship flights ended in explosive fireballs.
Elon Musk’s company had newest, most advanced Starlinks aboard
Twenty of SpaceX’s newest and most advanced Starlinks were on board Starship for release during the planned hourlong flight from Starbase, the company’s hub near the Texas-Mexico border. The internet satellites were going to try communicating with Starlinks already in orbit while taking photos of Starship’s heat shield.
Neither the first-stage booster nor spacecraft were meant to be recovered, with both ending up in the sea.
The rocket’s automatic launch system worked as planned by halting everything. Too few operating engines could have resulted in a failed launch. Some earlier Starship flights, for example, ended in explosive fireballs.
World’s biggest rocket is key to putting astronauts back on the moon
NASA is counting on Starship to land its astronauts on the moon in the next few years. The space agency has hired SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to build and fly the lunar landers that will return humanity to the surface of the moon after an absence of more than half a century.
Both companies need to have their landers — Starship and Blue Moon — ready to fly by next year so that the newly named Artemis III crew can practice docking their capsule with them in orbit around Earth. The mission after that — Artemis IV planned for no earlier than 2028 — would use one of those landers to take two astronauts to the moon’s south polar region.
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