CEO Elon Musk saying SpaceX will likely try to launch again early next week
Back in May, I reported that Space X had launched its twelfth Starship test flight and its first V3 vehicle from Starbase in Texas.and ended with a planned destructive splashdown in the Indian Ocean about an hour after liftoff.
The 13th test was slated to follow as soon as practically possible. SpaceX’s Starship rocket triggered a last-second abort before liftoff for its 13th flight test from Texas on Thursday as some of its 33 engines failed to start, with CEO Elon Musk saying it will likely try to launch again early next week. Shares of SpaceX, which went public last month, fell about 3% in aftermarket trading following the scrubbed launch.
The stock ended at $131.11 on Thursday, closing below its IPO price of $135 for the first time since listing.
“Some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort,” Musk said in a post on X, without disclosing the number of engines on the Super Heavy rocket that did not start. “To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed & replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week.
” The launch abort came less than a second before Starship’s planned liftoff from Starbase, SpaceX’s company town in south Texas, at 5:45 p.m. CT . The rocket’s engines ignited but cut off shortly after. Flight 13 will fly a similar suborbital profile as Flight 12, incorporating changes in response to issues seen on Flight 12.
That included the failure of the Super Heavy booster to perform a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico and the loss of one of six engines in the Starship upper stage during its ascent. One notable change for Flight 13 is Starship’s payload. While some previous flights carried mass simulators of next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, this mission is carrying 20 functioning Starlink V3 satellites that will be deployed once Starship is in space.
The satellites, placed on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship, will be put through about 20 minutes of tests before reentry. That includes deployment of solar arrays and antennas and communications tests with both ground stations and other Starlink satellites.
“Before we operationalize these satellites, we want to put them in a flight-like environment,” SpaceX’s Tyler Lionquist said on the launch webcast. The brief flight will allow engineers to “speed run” those deployment and communications tests.
“This is all part of SpaceX’s iterative process to technology advancement. ” To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed & replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week. Director of Starship engineering Shana Diez said on X that the Thursday launch scrub was the first time a fully stacked Starship rocket lit its engines and then aborted.
“While similar to a wet dress rehearsal,” she said, referring to a practice run of a rocket launch, “there is a lot going on and any first time operation comes with additional risk. ” “This is how we learn safely and implement mitigations for all scenarios,” said Jessie Anderson, a Starship production engineer who sometimes hosts the company’s launch live streams.
For folks following along, today was the first time we lit engines on a full stack Starship then aborted and detanked. While similar to a wet dress rehearsal there is a lot going on and any first time operation comes with additional risk. Taking in the sequence of events, the last-second abort is not a failure but evidence that SpaceX’s safety systems are doing exactly what they are designed to do.
The company’s iterative approach, now paired with real payload testing, continues to push Starship closer to operational reality despite the inevitable setbacks that come with cutting-edge engineering. Here’s hoping the next launch attempt is successful, and we take another meaningful step toward a truly spacefaring future.
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