STARBASE — SpaceX got within 40 seconds of launching its newest and biggest Starship before a series of problems halted Thursday’s countdown, leaving the rocket standing on its pad.
Upper-level winds delayed the planned launch from 5:30 to 6, then to 6:30 p.m. Next, problems with the new Starbase launch tower caused SpaceX to pause the countdown with 40 seconds to go. Then, with the launch window closing, the test flight was scrubbed.
CEO Elon Musk later said the hydraulic pin holding the launch tower’s arm in place did not retract. If the problem can be fixed quickly, he said, the company will try again Friday for the first test of its next-generation Starship.
The Starship left waiting on the pad at Starbase has been loaded with 20 mock Starlink satellites and two “specially modified” Starlinks to be released before the spacecraft’s controlled entry into the Indian Ocean at the end of the 65-minute mission. It will be the 12th test flight for a Starship from South Texas and the first since last October. The two modified satellites will be used to scan Starship’s heat shields and transmit images for analysis.
NASA is relying on the latest version of Starship to land astronauts on the moon in a few years.
Updates:
- 8 p.m.: SpaceX got within 40 seconds of launching its newest and biggest Starship before a series of problems halted Thursday’s countdown, leaving the rocket standing on its pad.
- 7:10 p.m.: “The hydraulic pin holding the tower arm in place did not retract,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a post on X. “If that can be fixed tonight, there will be another launch attempt tomorrow at 5:30 CT.”
- 7 p.m.: After the last-minute cancellation of Thursday’s planned launch of its next-generation Starship, SpaceX said it would try again Friday.
- 6:40 p.m.: After multiple delays, SpaceX has called off the first launch of the latest version of its Starship mega-rocket. The company said it could try again Friday.
- 6:25 p.m.: The flight range is clear, weather is clear, propellant loading is nearly finished and Starship is set for launch in about five minutes.
- 6:20 p.m.: In a first, SpaceX has a spokesman with its rocket recovery team in the Indian Ocean where Starship is to touch down at the end of today’s mission.
- 6:15 p.m.: Conditions are good for launch, which is still set for 6:30 p.m. from Starbase, according to SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot.
- 6:05 p.m.: A U.S. military observation blimp stationed at South Padre Island is seen in the foreground of this view of Starbase.
- 5:50 p.m.: SpaceX has begun its livestream coverage of today’s Starship launch, which is still set for 6:30 p.m.
- 5:45 p.m.: NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman apparently piloted one of his privately owned Northrop F-5 Tiger II fighter jets to Brownsville to watch the launch.
- 5:30 p.m.: Today’s flight will be the first to take off from a new launch tower that has a more strongly reinforced pad and concrete flame trench to help dampen the force of Starship’s 33 big Raptor engines.
- 5:05 p.m.: SpaceX said it’s now targeting 6:30 p.m. Central for launch of Starship.
- 4:40 p.m.: SpaceX is now targeting 6 p.m. for today’s launch of the third-generation Starship it stacked at its launch tower this week.
- 4:30 p.m.: With skies clearing around Starbase, SpaceX says conditions are on track for today’s flight test.