SpaceX's Starship rocket, the world's largest and most powerful, experienced a launch abort on Thursday when several engines failed to start just seconds before its planned liftoff. The rocket remained anchored to the launch pad at Starbase, Texas.
The launch webcast showed the ignition sequence beginning three seconds before the scheduled liftoff, but the engines that fired abruptly shut down. The SpaceX launch team subsequently began draining fuel from the rocket.
"Next launch attempt hopefully in a few days," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted on X. The company will need to determine the cause of the engine failure before attempting another launch.
This was intended to be the 13th test flight for Starship, which stands 407 feet tall and is powered by 33 main engines. The rocket was carrying 20 of SpaceX's newest Starlink internet satellites, which were to be deployed during the planned hour-long flight. The satellites were intended to communicate with existing Starlinks in orbit and capture images of Starship's heat shield.
Neither the first-stage booster nor the Starship spacecraft were slated for recovery on this test flight; both were expected to end their journeys in the sea.
NASA relies on Starship for its lunar landing program. The space agency has contracted SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop lunar landers for missions aimed at returning humans to the moon. These landers, Starship and Blue Moon, are needed by next year for the Artemis III crew to practice docking procedures. A subsequent mission, Artemis IV, planned for no earlier than 2028, will utilize one of these landers to transport two astronauts to the moon's south polar region.