Ammon News - Elon Musk's SpaceX on Sunday called off the launch of Starship's tenth mission from Texas over an issue at its launch site, delaying an attempt to achieve several long-sought development milestones missed due to past tests ending in early failures.
The 232-foot(70.7-meter)-tall Super Heavy booster and its 171-foot(52-meter)-tall Starship upper half sat stacked on a launch mount at SpaceX's Starbase rocket facilities as it was being filled with propellant ahead of a liftoff time of 7:35 p.m. ET (2335 GMT).
But roughly 30 minutes from liftoff, SpaceX said on X it was standing down to allow time to troubleshoot an issue with ground systems.
Musk had been poised to provide an update on Starship's development progress prior to the rocket's launch on Sunday, but a placeholder live stream indicated it had been cancelled.
Similar postponements in the past have been resolved in a matter of days. SpaceX is now targeting as soon as Monday, August 25, for Starship's next launch attempt, according to its website.
Development of SpaceX's next-generation rocket, the center of the company's powerful launch business future and Musk's Mars ambitions, has faced repeated hiccups this year.
Two Starship testing failures early in flight, another failure in space on its ninth flight, and a massive test stand explosion in June that sent debris flying into nearby Mexican territory have tested SpaceX's test-to-failure development approach. Reuters