Due to a stuck valve, Elon Musk’s SpaceX postponed the unmanned test flight by at least two days and cancelled the highly anticipated debut launch of its newly integrated Starship cruise ship and Super Heavy rocket in the closing minutes of countdown.
Originally scheduled to launch from the SpaceX “Starbase” facility at Boca Chica, Texas, during a two-hour launch window that started at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT), the two-stage rocketship is taller than the Statue of Liberty at 394 feet (120 m).
The lower-stage rocket booster’s pressurization valve had frozen, according to the California-based space business, which caused it to postpone the scheduled 90-minute space mission for at least 48 hours. The mission’s next open launch window would then be on Wednesday.
On the webcast, representatives from SpaceX stated that ground crews will still fuel the rocket in preparation for flight up until the very last second of Monday’s countdown, converting the failed launch attempt into a “wet dress rehearsal” for the subsequent attempt.
The mission had a better probability of being cancelled than launching on Monday, according to billionaire inventor and CEO Elon Musk, who spoke to a private Twitter audience on Sunday night.
At least initially as part of NASA’s recently launched human spaceflight program, Artemis, getting the vehicle into space would constitute a significant step towards SpaceX’s goal of bringing people to Mars and the moon again. A successful first flight would also establish the Starship system as the planet’s most potent launch mechanism.
