Elon Musk: Test flight of his SpaceX rocket Starship postponed again

Starbase. The planned tenth test flight of the largest rocket system ever built in space history has been postponed again shortly before launch. Weather conditions prevented a test of the unmanned Starship, SpaceX, the private space company owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, announced shortly before the scheduled launch. The team responsible is examining the best possible next launch option, it added.

The test flight was originally scheduled for Sunday (local time), but was postponed for a day to fix a fault in the ground systems. Starship is scheduled to depart from the company's spaceport in the US state of Texas for a test flight lasting approximately one hour.

The rocket system is larger than the Statue of Liberty in New York. It consists of two parts that separate after launch: the approximately 70-meter-long Super Heavy booster and the approximately 50-meter-long upper stage, also called Starship.

Both parts are designed to be reused after returning to Earth. The US space agency NASA plans to use Starship to send astronauts to the moon, while SpaceX aims to one day reach Mars.

The rocket system was first tested in April 2023 – and exploded completely after just a few minutes. In subsequent tests, the upper stage reached space and even made a controlled landing in the Indian Ocean. However, several recent test flights fell significantly short of expectations.

RND/dpa