SpaceX Cancels Starship Test Flight Because of Engine Ignition Problem

SpaceX Cancels Starship Test Flight Due to Engine Issues

SpaceX announced the cancellation of a scheduled test flight for its Starship rocket on Thursday after experiencing a failure with some of the Super Heavy booster’s engines during the countdown process at their launch site in South Texas.

The launch was called off when the countdown reached zero at around 5:45 p.m. local time. Officials noted that preparations had been progressing well earlier in the day, including loading over 11.5 million pounds of liquid methane and oxygen onto the massive rocket. However, an automatic abort was triggered during the engine start sequence when the computers detected a problem.

Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, shared an update on social media. He mentioned that several engines failed to ignite, which led to the automatic cancellation of the launch. Musk explained, “We are currently unloading propellant. We hope to try for the next launch in a few days.” He specified that the team wouldn’t be attempting to launch during the next available window on Friday evening, and confirmed that two of the Super Heavy booster’s Raptor engines would be replaced. “The most likely launch time is early next week,” he noted.

The Super Heavy Booster is equipped with 33 Raptor engines that run on methane, each producing over 500,000 pounds of thrust. During the attempted launch, it was shown on SpaceX’s live video stream that four of the engines didn’t ignite as intended. The engines are meant to start in a staggered sequence after the launch pad’s water-cooled flame diverter activates, a precautionary measure to shield the site from the intense heat and vibrations of such a powerful rocket.

This test flight would have been the 13th full-scale launch of Starship and the second using the upgraded Starship Version 3, powered by third-generation Raptor 3 engines. A previous test flight in May with these new engines faced some challenges but was regarded as largely successful. Interestingly, that launch’s boot sequence had gone off without a hitch.

The Flight 13 mission holds significance as SpaceX attempts to resolve some technical issues that arose during Flight 12 two months prior. According to a launch summary from May, the stage separation in Flight 12 encountered slight timing discrepancies in the engines which caused the booster to shift inexplicably. Changes have been made to the startup process to accommodate these timing variations better.

Earlier test flights had their share of complications as well, particularly with several booster engines failing to reignite during the landing phase. Successfully completing this process in Flight 13 would mark a key achievement in returning the reusable boosters to their launch pads. SpaceX has previously shown they can perform this with the Starship version 2, but it’s yet to be achieved with version 3.

Additionally, the upper stage faced engine issues during Flight 12, leading to the premature shutdown of one of its Raptor engines. Despite this, the rocket managed a precision splashdown in the Indian Ocean, but plans to reignite the engines in space had to be scrapped. This capability remains a primary goal for SpaceX with the upcoming Flight 13.