SpaceX Postpones First Starship Flight After Going Public

Some Engines Fail to Ignite

The test flight of SpaceX's Starship was postponed just before launch.

On July 16 (local time), Bloomberg and other outlets reported that the 13th test flight of Starship, which was being attempted at Starbase, Texas, was called off just seconds before the scheduled launch time. It was reported that the launch was automatically aborted because some of the 33 main engines of Starship failed to ignite.

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, stated on X (formerly Twitter), "We plan to replace two engines for a successful flight," adding, "The most likely launch timing is early next week."

Starship is a super-heavy launch vehicle developed by SpaceX, standing 124 meters tall and capable of carrying more cargo and satellites than the existing Falcon 9. It is considered a key launch vehicle for SpaceX's future growth.

SpaceX has invested 15 billion USD (approximately 22.2 trillion won) in developing Starship alone and signed a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to use Starship for lunar exploration. However, various defects have been discovered during each of the 12 prior test launches.

On May 22, one out of the six main engines of the next-generation Starship model V3 failed to ignite, and the booster engines did not ignite sufficiently, resulting in a failure to start control.

Following the news of the delay, SpaceX's share price fell 3% in after-hours trading.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.