"Launch halted 17 minutes before liftoff"
"To allow time to check ground system issues"
The tenth orbital test launch of SpaceX's large spacecraft "Starship," which is being developed for Mars exploration, has been postponed.
On the 24th (local time), SpaceX announced ahead of the launch, "The tenth flight of Starship scheduled for today has been halted."
On this day, Starship was scheduled to launch at 6:30 p.m. local time from the Starbase facility at Boca Chica Beach, Texas, USA. Seventeen minutes before launch, SpaceX announced via X (formerly Twitter) that the launch would be halted. SpaceX explained that this was "to allow time to check ground system issues." The ground system refers to the launch pad and the surrounding infrastructure that supports the launch.
The 121-meter-tall Starship consists of an upper-stage spacecraft and a powerful booster called "Super Heavy," which is equipped with 33 engines. In this tenth test launch, the upper-stage spacecraft and the booster were scheduled to separate three minutes after liftoff, with the booster falling into the Gulf of Mexico instead of returning to the launch site. The spacecraft was also set to deploy eight prototype next-generation Starlink satellites and conduct a brief engine ignition test in space.
The seventh through ninth test launches previously attempted all ended in failure. Last month, an explosion occurred while preparing for the tenth launch.
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