SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has postponed the launch of its Starship rocket due to a ‘stage 1’ fuelling issue less than ten minutes before take-off.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reported on Twitter that the team had discovered a frozen pressurant valve, resulting in the launch being postponed.
However, the team continued with the countdown until T minus 40 seconds, using the opportunity as a ‘wet dress rehearsal’ to continue running through the final preparation stages.
Due to the time required to empty the propellant and ready the rocket for launch, it will be at least 48 hours before another launch attempt – provided they can quickly fix the cause of the issue.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted: ‘Learned a lot today, now offloading propellant, retrying in a few days.’
Speaking on Twitter Spaces the night before the launch, Mr Musk warned that the mission had ‘a million ways to fail’. However, today’s postponement is more of a temporary setback than a failure.
The launch of Starship is a groundbreaking attempt in the development of vertical take-off and landing rockets.
The Starship rocket, which stands 120m tall, is a combination of two SpaceX systems, both of which are intended to be fully reusable. The upper Starship craft is designed to carry crew and cargo. The lower Super Heavy rocket booster and its 33 engines will provide initial thrust.
Numerous tests have proven the Starship’s ability to perform take-off and landing manoeuvres – evolving from the ‘loveable watertower’ Starhopper, a small prototype, to today’s 50metre-high craft. However, it has not been plain sailing, with multiple iterations exploding on landing.
Today’s mission focus was to test the Starship in orbit, flying the craft on an almost complete circuit of the Earth before a traditional hard landing, or ‘splashdown’, in the Pacific Ocean around 155miles north of Hawaii.
The Super Heavy rocket, which provides the Starship with its initial thrust from 33 engines, also has the ability to land vertically, but will splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.