SpaceX's Starship mega rocket, which carried several advanced satellites, had the test flight cancelled seconds before takeoff this Thursday after ignition failures on several of the engines.
© Lusa
17/07/2026
by
Lusa
O founder and CEO of the company, Elon Musk, stated that two engines will be replaced “to ensure a good flight” before the Texas Starship takes off on a bribery trip. It will be the 13th Starship flight, considered the world's largest and most powerful rocket, 124 metres high and 33 main engines.
SpaceX transmission showed the start of the ignition three seconds before the planned takeoff, filmed by a drone on the platform. Without detailing, the data that appeared on the screen revealed four engines without working, with the remaining 29 shutting down immediately, keeping the rocket attached to the base. It was the first time that a full-scale Starship suffered a cancellation at the last second.
The launch team immediately started draining the fuel. “The most likely moment for the release is at the beginning of next week,” Musk said on social network X.
Despite favourable conditions, the automatic launch system operated as planned when stopping take-off after recording that an insufficient number of engines were active, which could have compromised the mission. The cancellation occurred after some previous Starship flights ended in explosions.
The Starship was carrying 20 of the latest and most advanced Starlink satellites intended to be released during the flight of about an hour from SpaceX base near the Texas-Mexico border. Satellites would try to communicate with the Starlinks already in orbit and capture images of the rocket's thermal shield.
Space Agency NASA has hired SpaceX and Blue Origin from Jeff Bezos to develop and operate lunar modules that will allow human return to the lunar surface after more than half a century.
Both companies must have their modules – Starship and Blue Moon – ready by next year, so that the crew of the Artemis III mission can practice coupling in Earth orbit.
The next mission, Artemis IV, scheduled not before 2028, will use one of these modules to take two astronauts to the southern polar region of the Moon.