SpaceX’s Starship rocket aborted its 13th flight test less than a second before liftoff from Texas on Thursday, forcing the company to postpone the mission by at least 24 hours while engineers investigate the cause, according to Reuters.The automated launch scrub occurred moments before the planned 6:45 p.m. ET liftoff from Starbase, SpaceX’s launch site in south Texas. The rocket’s Raptor engines ignited but shut down shortly afterward, preventing the launch.Elon Musk in a post on X said, “Some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort. Now offloading propellant. Next launch attempt hopefully in a few days.”Explaining the abort during the company’s live stream, SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said, “We did trigger a hold on the booster that aborted our liftoff as we were starting to light those Raptor engines. We’ll take some time, dig into what triggered that abort once the booster was igniting to launch, and then we’ll figure out what our path forward is going to be.”SpaceX said it will spend the next 24 hours analysing the issue before determining when to make another launch attempt.The aborted mission marks another delay for Starship, the world’s largest and most powerful rocket, as SpaceX continues testing the fully reusable launch system designed to carry astronauts and cargo to the Moon and Mars.
