SpaceX scrubs 10th Starship test launch amid weather delays; NASA’s Artemis III likely pushed to 2028

SpaceX called off the 10th test flight of its massive Starship rocket on Monday(August 25), marking the second consecutive night the launch was scrubbed due to weather concerns. The vehicle, fully loaded with propellants on the launchpad, faced persistent cloud cover that could have posed risks during flight, leading officials to halt the attempt shortly after 8 pm Eastern time.

Originally scheduled for Sunday evening, the launch was first scrubbed when a leak was detected in a liquid oxygen feed line shortly after propellants began flowing into the rocket.

The company later shared on X that it was “determining the next best available opportunity to fly.”

The test flight, crucial for both SpaceX and NASA, was intended to demonstrate Starship’s capability to achieve key milestones, including future missions that could carry astronauts to Mars.

“The stakes are the highest they’ve ever been for a Starship launch,” said Todd Harrison, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC.

However, Harrison added that while the test is important, it is not necessarily a “make or break” moment for the company. “If they have another failure, they still have room to continue iterating, but they are running out of room,” Harrison noted.

Elon Musk also joined the Monday broadcast with the vice president of SpaceX Starship engineering, Bill Riley, where he discussed the features of the rocket and the motivation behind building it.

All about Starship

Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, represents Elon Musk’s ambitious vision for fully reusable space travel, with both its stages designed to return to the launch site and be caught by giant mechanical arms.

Standing 400 feet tall, the vehicle combines the upper-stage Starship spacecraft with the Super Heavy booster, powered by 33 engines. If SpaceX succeeds, the system could transform the space industry by enabling the launch of larger and heavier payloads at significantly lower costs.

SpaceX has shown faster and more efficient results thanks to its “break it and fix it” philosophy of development. It does not follow the traditional approach of NASA and other competitors that try to anticipate all the problems before the test flight.

The seventh, eighth, and ninth Starship test flights were disappointing, as the upper-stage spacecraft failed earlier in flight compared with the fifth and sixth tests, which had survived re-entry and completed simulated landings over the Indian Ocean.

The ninth flight in May reached space, but a malfunction in the fuel tank pressurization system diffuser caused methane to leak into the nose cone, forcing SpaceX to skip the in-space engine burn and the deployment of Starlink mock-up satellites; the spacecraft ultimately tumbled in space before burning up upon re-entry over the Indian Ocean.

What can we expect during the test flight?

The rocket will be propelled by the Super Heavy booster through the densest part of the Earth’s atmosphere. The booster will fall away but will head back to the launch site as the engines of the upper stage spacecraft ignite after 2 minutes and 38 seconds. The booster will land over the Gulf of Mexico.

The upper stage of the spacecraft will reach orbital velocities. It will travel along a trajectory that will re-enter Earth over the Indian Ocean.

During the flight, Starship will also test the deployment of eight mock-up Starlink internet satellites and perform a brief in-space engine burn. These engine burns are critical for future missions, allowing the upper stage to enter orbit and later fire its engines again to exit orbit.

“The only way to know what we should be adjusting is to fly repeatedly and to be able to examine the ship on landing,” Mr. Musk said of experiments with the ship’s heat shields during the SpaceX livestream before the launch.

Destroyed in a pre-launch explosion

The Starship upper stage originally slated for the 10th test flight was destroyed in June in a ground explosion during preparations for an engine test. Although no injuries were reported, the blast demolished the spacecraft and caused significant damage to a nearby SpaceX testing facility separate from the main launchpad.

Elon Musk announced plans for the first Starship missions to Mars in 2026, initially uncrewed, with the first crewed flight potentially happening as early as 2028.

However, in May, he expressed more caution, saying the mission had about a “50/50 chance” of success.

Musk added that he hopes Starship will demonstrate in-orbit refueling next year on Monday, a critical capability for missions beyond Earth orbit.

NASA’s plans for the Moon

Artemis III, NASA’s mission to land two astronauts near the moon’s south pole, is currently scheduled for late 2027, with a version of Starship set to serve as the lunar lander.

However, delays in Starship’s development mean the mission will likely be pushed to 2028 or later, as SpaceX still needs to demonstrate critical capabilities such as launching multiple Starships in rapid succession and transferring propellants between them.