SpaceX called off a planned test flight of its Starship megarocket on Sunday to troubleshoot technical issues, marking the latest setback for Elon Musk’s massive rocket after a series of explosive failures.
The rocket, the world’s largest and most powerful, was scheduled for its tenth flight from the company’s Starbase in southern Texas at 6:30 pm local time (2330 GMT). Around 15 minutes before lift-off, SpaceX scrubbed the mission, citing issues with ground systems. A new launch date has not been announced, though a countdown on the company website suggested a possible attempt on Monday evening. Road closures near Starbase indicated Monday and Tuesday were cleared for potential launches.
The hour-long mission was intended to test the rocket’s upper stage, while the lower stage booster would splash down in the Indian Ocean. The upper stage, designed to carry crew and cargo, has exploded in all three previous test flights in 2025, with two failures scattering debris over Caribbean islands and another breaking up after reaching space. A June “static fire” test also ended with an upper-stage explosion on the ground.
The 403-foot (123-meter) rocket is designed to be fully reusable, but SpaceX has not yet successfully launched the upper stage to space or returned it to the launch site. The lower stage booster has been caught three times using the giant “chopstick” arms of the launch tower, but the tenth flight was not expected to attempt this feat.
Starship is central to Musk’s ambitions of colonizing Mars, while NASA plans to use a modified version to return Americans to the Moon. However, repeated upper-stage failures have raised doubts about the rocket’s reliability. Analysts say the setbacks are beginning to tarnish SpaceX’s reputation, with some questioning whether the Starship concept is fundamentally flawed.
Even if the tenth test flight succeeds, significant technical hurdles remain, including making the system fully and rapidly reusable at low cost and proving it can refuel super-cooled propellant in orbit—a prerequisite for deep-space missions.
Despite criticism from environmental groups over potential ecological impacts, SpaceX continues to press ahead, increasing the frequency of Starship launches. The company’s “fail fast, learn fast” approach has helped it achieve global dominance with its Falcon rockets, but whether that success can be repeated with Starship remains uncertain.
