Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has faced increased risks after a series of explosive setbacks earlier this year involving reusable rockets, has come under additional pressure after delaying a critical test flight of its Starship rocket about half an hour before liftoff on Sunday, citing the need to fix a liquid oxygen leak.
The delay happened as SpaceX was conducting regular test launches of Starship, aimed at preparing the vehicle for carrying satellites—and eventually people—to Earth’s orbit and beyond.
Starship’s first two flights this year failed within minutes. A third attempt didn’t deploy dummy satellites and spun out of control. Additionally, another rocket exploded on a test stand in June during fueling.
To tackle these challenges, SpaceX temporarily reallocated about 20% of its Falcon engineering team to Starship to assist with testing and improve reliability.
Starship’s most recent attempt was scheduled to launch on its 10th major mission from SpaceX’s South Texas launch site, known as Starbase.
Musk wrote on X today: “Starship 10 launching tonight.”
SpaceX failures have raised growing questions about whether Starship can achieve Musk’s goal of someday transporting humans back to the moon and to Mars.
By CEO NA Editorial Staff
