Cloudy weather delays SpaceX Starships latest launch to overcome testing troubles
Elon Musk’s SpaceX postponed the 10th launch of its Starship rocket due to cloudy weather in Texas on Monday, another slight delay in its efforts to overcome development setbacks and achieve several long-sought milestones essential to the Mars rocket system’s reusable design.The 232-feet tall Super Heavy booster and its 171-feet tall Starship upper half, which together make it taller than New York’s Statue of Liberty, sat on a launch mount at SpaceX’s Starbase rocket facilities ahead of liftoff time that had been moved back a few times because of gloomy weather.The rocket was filled with millions of pounds of propellant and set to launch when SpaceX around 8:00 p.m.EST (0000 GMT) opted to call off the day’s launch and turn the operation into a launch rehearsal, considering the weather forecast would remain unfavorable throughout the launch window.SpaceX will try to launch Starship on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
(2130 GMT)A liquid oxygen leak at the Starship launchpad had nixed a Sunday launch attempt, billionaire Musk wrote on X overnight, adding SpaceX would try again on Monday.Musk on Monday appeared on SpaceX’s live stream for a brief chat about Starship’s design and its role in ferrying humans to Mars.Development of SpaceX’s next-generation rocket, key to the company’s powerful launch business and Musk’s goal to send humans to Mars, has faced repeated hiccups this year.NASA hopes to use the rocket as soon as 2027 for its first crewed moon landing since the Apollo program.SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet business, a major source of company revenue, is also tied to Starship’s success.
Musk aims to use Starship to launch larger batches of Starlink satellites, which have so far been deployed by SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, into space.“In about 6 or 7 years, there will be days where Starship launches more than 24 times in 24 hours,” Musk said on Sunday, replying to a user on X.This year, two Starship testing failures early in f...