SpaceX has postponed the latest test flight of its Starship megarocket, citing technical issues that required troubleshooting, marking yet another setback for Elon Musk’s ambitious space program. The launch, originally scheduled for Sunday evening from the company’s Starbase facility in southern Texas, has been pushed back 24 hours to Monday.
About 15 minutes before lift-off, the company announced the decision to abort the attempt — a routine occurrence in space launches where safety protocols demand caution. “Standing down from today’s tenth flight of Starship to allow time to troubleshoot an issue with ground systems,” SpaceX said in a statement posted on X.
Musk later clarified the cause, writing that a “ground side liquid oxygen leak needs to be fixed.” SpaceX indicated the mission could proceed “as soon as” Monday evening, though it noted the timeline remained “dynamic and likely to change.” Road closures around the Starbase site also suggested Tuesday had been reserved as a backup option.
The planned one-hour mission was designed to put Starship’s upper stage through a series of critical maneuvers before its lower-stage booster splashed down in the Indian Ocean.
Setbacks and Explosions
Starship lies at the heart of Musk’s long-term vision of colonizing Mars, while NASA is relying on a modified version to return astronauts to the Moon. But progress has been hampered by repeated failures. In 2025 alone, all three upper-stage test flights ended in explosions — two scattering debris over Caribbean islands and another breaking apart after briefly reaching space. A separate static-fire test in June also ended in an explosion on the ground.
Standing 403 feet (123 meters) tall, Starship is the largest rocket ever built and is intended to be fully reusable. Yet the company has not managed to deliver a payload to orbit or successfully return the upper stage to its launch site. Following a failed test in May, SpaceX pledged to “intentionally stress the structural limits” of the system in an effort to accelerate improvements.
Although the lower-stage booster has been caught successfully with Starbase’s giant “chopstick” launch arms on three occasions, the upcoming flight will not attempt the maneuver.
Growing Scrutiny
The company’s “fail fast, learn fast” philosophy has historically underpinned its dominance in the space sector, particularly with the success of its Falcon rocket family. However, persistent problems with Starship are raising doubts about whether the same formula will work with the largest rocket ever developed.
Dallas Kasaboski, a space analyst at Analysys Mason, noted the mounting scrutiny. “I think there is a lot of pressure on this mission,” he said. “We’ve had so many tests and it hasn’t proven itself reliable — the successes have not exceeded the failures.”
Will Lockett, a former engineer and commentator, offered a harsher assessment in his Substack newsletter, arguing that Starship’s inability to place a payload in orbit shows “the concept of Starship is fundamentally flawed.”
Musk, who has staked much of SpaceX’s future on Starship, eventually plans to retire the company’s current fleet of rockets and spacecraft in favor of the new system. Even with a successful test, significant technical challenges remain, including achieving rapid and low-cost reusability and developing in-orbit refueling capabilities essential for deep-space missions.
Despite environmental criticism and public skepticism, SpaceX continues to press forward, increasing the frequency of Starship tests as it works toward proving the system’s viability.
Ref: AFP
