Monday 25 / August / 2025
Texas: SpaceX said on Sunday that it had canceled a test flight of its Starship rocket, citing an issue with the launch site.
"Standing down from today's tenth flight of Starship to allow time to troubleshoot an issue with ground systems," the firm said on the platform X.
The rocket was due to launch from the company's Starbase in southern Texas and would have marked the tenth mission from the site.
The launch was to be carried out at 6:30 p.m. local time (23:30 GMT), but was called off just 15 minutes before lift off.
Earlier on Sunday, SpaceX founder Elon Musk had posted on his X platform "Starship 10 launching tonight."
SpaceX did not say whether there would be another launch attempt.
The cancelled launch is the latest setback for Musk's company.
This year, two Starship tests failed early in flight, another failed in space, and a "static fire" test produced a ground explosion in June.
The massive Starship rocket is a major part of Musk's plans to bring humans to Mars.
Earlier this year, Musk said that Starship would leave for Mars at the end of 2026 while carrying a humanoid robot. He said he believed human landings could proceed at some time between 2029-2031.
The rocket is 403 feet (123 metres) tall and is designed to eventually be fully reusable.
SpaceX's "fail fast, learn fast" approach has helped it become the world's dominant launch services provider. However, setbacks with Starship have raised doubts about whether the firm can repeat the success with the large rocket.
