Tenth Starship test flight postponed shortly before launch

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• The planned tenth test flight of the largest rocket system ever built in the history of space travel has been postponed shortly before launch.
• The test of the unmanned Starship will initially not take place as planned.
• A fault in the ground systems had to be rectified first, SpaceX announced a few minutes before the originally planned launch time.

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The planned tenth test flight of the largest rocket system ever built in the history of space travel has been postponed shortly before the launch. The test of the unmanned Starship will initially not take place as planned so that a fault in the ground systems can be rectified, SpaceX, the private space company owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, announced a few minutes before the originally planned launch time.

SpaceX did not initially provide any further details or a new test date. The Starship was supposed to set off from the company's spaceport in the US state of Texas for a test flight lasting around an hour.

The rocket system is larger than the Statue of Liberty in New York. It consists of two parts that separate after the launch: The approximately 70-meter-long Super Heavy booster and the upper stage - also called Starship - which measures around 50 meters.

The Starship will one day travel to Mars

Both parts are designed so that they can be reused after returning to Earth. The US space agency NASA wants to use the Starship to send astronauts to the moon, while SpaceX is pursuing the goal of one day reaching Mars.

The rocket system was tested for the first time in April 2023 - and exploded completely after just a few minutes. In further tests, the upper stage reached space and made a controlled landing in the Indian Ocean. Most recently, however, several test flights fell well short of expectations.