SpaceX has called off its tenth test flight of the Starship spacecraft due to an issue with ground systems at its launch site in Texas. The company had scheduled the launch for Sunday, but roughly 30 minutes before liftoff, it decided to stand down and troubleshoot the problem.
The delay comes as SpaceX faces repeated hiccups in its development process this year, including two early flight failures, a failure in space on its ninth flight, and a massive test stand explosion in June. Despite these setbacks, the company has continued to produce new Starships for test flights at its Starbase production facilities.
The stacked system was expected to blast off from Texas around sunset on Sunday before its Starship upper stage separated from the Super Heavy booster dozens of miles in altitude. The rocket would have targeted the Gulf of Mexico for a soft water landing and attempted to release its first batch of mock Starlink satellites and reignite an engine while on a suborbital path.
The company is now facing pressure to achieve several long-sought development milestones missed due to past tests ending in early failures. SpaceX’s next-generation rocket, which is the center of the company’s powerful launch business future and Elon Musk’s Mars ambitions, has been plagued by technical complexities this year.
SpaceX did not say when it would make another launch attempt, but similar scrubs in the past have been resolved in a matter of days. The company is working to troubleshoot the issue with ground systems and will provide an update on its development progress once the problem is fixed.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/spacex-postpones-starship-test-flight-over-ground-system-issue-2025-08-24