Elon Musk's SpaceX ‘stands down from Starship test flight’; when will next launch happen?

Elon Musk's SpaceX delayed the scheduled test flight of its Starship rocket on Monday, citing an unspecified issue with the massive spacecraft.

"Standing down from today's flight test attempt," SpaceX posted on X, also owned by Musk. “The Starship team is assessing the next best opportunity to launch.”

The world's largest and most powerful rocket was planned to lift off without a crew at 6:45 pm (2345 GMT) from SpaceX's Starbase site in Boca Chica, Texas.

A rescheduled launch has yet to be announced, though SpaceX employee Dan Huot said it was expected "to be about 24 hours" during a live feed of the event, as reported by AFP.

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The upcoming flight will be Starship's eighth orbital mission and the first since its last test, which ended in a dramatic mid-air explosion over the Caribbean.

At 403 feet (123 meters) tall—roughly 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty—Starship is designed to be fully reusable in the future and is central to Musk and SpaceX's goal of colonizing Mars, AFP reported.

Meanwhile, NASA is awaiting a modified version of the rocket for its Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon.

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The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded Starship after its previous flight on January 16 ended with the upper stage disintegrating in a fiery cascade over the Turks and Caicos Islands, prompting cleanup efforts for fallen debris.

During Joe Biden's presidency, Musk often criticized the FAA for what he saw as excessive scrutiny of SpaceX's safety and environmental practices.

Now, as one of President Donald Trump's closest advisors, the world's richest person is facing accusations of exerting undue influence over the regulatory agencies that oversee his companies.

SpaceX upgrades

For the upcoming flight, SpaceX has implemented several upgrades to the upper-stage spacecraft, improving its reliability and performance.

The mission, expected to last just over an hour, will include another attempt to catch the booster stage using the launch tower's "chopstick" arms—a maneuver SpaceX has successfully completed twice, including during the last flight.

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Additionally, the company will deploy Starlink simulators designed to mimic next-generation Starlink satellites, which will burn up upon atmospheric re-entry.

Eventually, SpaceX aims to recover the upper stage as well, but for now, it is targeting an ocean splashdown off the west coast of Australia, as in previous flights.

In a recent appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast, Musk said the toughest problem facing the rocket's complete reusability is the heat shield.

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"We've got to solve the making a fully reusable orbital heat shield. A problem that has never been solved before," Musk said.

He added he believes Starship is "pretty close to achieving full and rapid reusability of the booster," saying the goal for whole stack reusability -- comprising both the rocket and booster -- next year.

Before Starship's ambitious goals of space exploration can be realized, SpaceX must prove the rocket is flightworthy and safe for crewed missions.

The company also needs to demonstrate complex in-orbit refueling -- using other Starships as fuel tankers -- to enable long-distance space travel.\

(With inputs from AFP)