SpaceX scrubs first Starship V3 launch just before liftoff

SpaceX has scrubbed the archetypal motorboat of its third-generation Starship rocket strategy from its office successful Starbase, Texas. The institution is expected to marque different effort connected Friday.

It’s a important motorboat for the institution — and not conscionable due to the fact that it’s the archetypal existent trial of the upgraded Starship V3 hardware; it besides comes astatine a pivotal infinitesimal for SpaceX financially. The institution precocious filed for an IPO and is expected to spell nationalist wrong weeks, putting added unit connected SpaceX to show that its next-generation rocket programme is making meaningful progress.

This motorboat — Starship’s 12th — volition people the archetypal formation of Starship since the company’s past effort successful October 2025. SpaceX has spent the interim months moving connected processing and investigating this 3rd mentation of Starship, which has encountered a fewer problems. In November, for example, 1 of the archetypal V3 boosters suffered an explosion during testing.

The institution pushed backmost the Thursday liftoff a fig of times and yet tried to nonstop the rocket into abstraction adjacent the extremity of its expected motorboat window. Starship and its monolithic rocket booster were afloat fueled, and the countdown dipped nether T-40 seconds, but issues with the assorted rocket and launchpad systems caused the institution to re-cycle the countdown aggregate times.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said successful a post connected X that the “hydraulic pin holding the [launch] operation limb successful spot did not retract,” and added that the institution volition effort again connected Friday astatine 5:30 p.m. section clip if the contented “can beryllium fixed tonight.”

This caller mentation of Starship represents a monolithic upgrade successful conveyance plan and however the company’s launchpad infrastructure works. One of the bigger changes were to SpaceX’s third-generation Raptor engines, which enactment much thrust successful a streamlined design. The third-gen Starship booster is expected to beryllium easier for the motorboat operation to drawback and has 1 less grid fin.

SpaceX has besides made a fig of changes that are expected to marque this mentation of Starship much reliable. For example, the caller plan is expected to halt leaking propellant from gathering up wrong definite sections of the Starship precocious signifier — which has presented problems connected aggregate erstwhile Starship trial flights. The extremity is to marque the full conveyance wholly reusable, akin to the company’s workhorse rocket, the Falcon 9.

This peculiar flight, if it goes arsenic planned, volition not execute each the goals that SpaceX has acceptable for proving retired Starship V3. The institution is not trying to retrieve the booster oregon the Starship conveyance itself. Both are expected to execute “soft landings” successful the h2o — the booster successful the Atlantic Ocean, and Starship successful the Indian Ocean. Starship besides won’t beryllium flying successful a existent Earth orbit, meaning SpaceX volition inactive person to hold different ngo oregon 2 to beryllium that this mega-rocket’s precocious signifier is susceptible of delivering commercialized payloads.

SpaceX needs Starship V3 to go a reliable motorboat strategy successful ample portion due to the fact that the institution has made a monolithic stake connected Starlink, which generated $11 cardinal successful gross past year, according to the company’s now-public IPO filing. SpaceX has demonstrated Starship’s quality to deploy dummy versions of its upgraded Starlink satellites successful erstwhile launches, but has yet to enactment a moving payload into abstraction with the caller rocket system.