Starship Test Flight, the World’s Largest Rocket, Delayed by SpaceX

SpaceX had to postpone the inaugural test flight of Starship, the most powerful rocket ever constructed, which is designed to transport astronauts to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

The launch was called off minutes before the scheduled lift-off time due to a booster-stage pressurization issue, according to SpaceX.

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, indicated that a pressure valve had frozen, necessitating a delay in the lift-off from Starbase, SpaceX’s spaceport in Boca Chica, Texas, which had been scheduled for 8:20 am Central Time (1320 GMT).

SpaceX has announced that the launch will be postponed for at least 48 hours.

NASA, the US space agency, has picked the Starship spacecraft to transport astronauts to the Moon in late 2025, known as the Artemis III mission, which will be the first time since the conclusion of the Apollo program in 1972.

Starship is composed of a 164-foot (50-meter) tall spacecraft built to transport crew and cargo, sitting atop a 230-foot-tall first-stage Super Heavy booster rocket.

SpaceX successfully tested the 33 Raptor engines on the first-stage booster in February, but the Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy rocket have never flown together.

The test flight is designed to evaluate their combined performance. Musk had previously cautioned that a delay was likely before the test.