SpaceX scrubs first Starship V3 launch just before liftoff

The company pushed back the Thursday liftoff a number of times and ultimately tried to send the rocket into space near the end of its expected launch window. Starship and its massive rocket booster were fully fueled, and the countdown dipped under T-40 seconds, but issues with the various rocket and launchpad systems caused the company to re-cycle the countdown multiple times.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a post on X that the “hydraulic pin holding the tower arm in place did not retract,” and added that the company will try again on Friday at 5:30 p.m. local time if the issue “can be fixed tonight.”

This new version of Starship represents a massive upgrade in vehicle design and how the company’s launchpad infrastructure works. One of the bigger changes were to SpaceX’s third-generation Raptor engines, which put more thrust in a streamlined design. The third-gen Starship booster is supposed to be easier for the launch tower to catch and has one fewer grid fin.

SpaceX has also made a number of changes that are supposed to make this version of Starship more reliable. For example, the new design is supposed to stop leaking propellant from building up inside certain sections of the Starship upper stage — which has presented problems on multiple previous Starship test flights. The goal is to make the entire vehicle totally reusable, similar to the company’s workhorse rocket, the Falcon 9.

This particular flight, if it goes as planned, will not accomplish all the goals that SpaceX has set for proving out Starship V3. The company is not trying to recover the booster or the Starship vehicle itself. Both are expected to perform “soft landings” in the water — the booster in the Atlantic Ocean, and Starship in the Indian Ocean. Starship also won’t be flying in a true Earth orbit, meaning SpaceX will still have to wait another mission or two to prove that this mega-rocket’s upper stage is capable of delivering commercial payloads.

SpaceX needs Starship V3 to become a reliable launch system in large part because the company has made a massive bet on Starlink, which generated $11 billion in revenue last year, according to the company’s now-public IPO filing. SpaceX has demonstrated Starship’s ability to deploy dummy versions of its upgraded Starlink satellites in previous launches, but has yet to put a working payload into space with the new rocket system.