Elon Musk’s aerospace company once postponed the long-awaited launch of its upgraded version 3 of Starship, scheduled for Thursday.
The next-generation Starship rocket is scheduled to lift off from its launch pad in south Texas on May 21, 2026, from Starbase, Texas. The launch window opened at 6:30 PM EDT (10:30 PM GMT).
But a last-minute technical glitch postponed the upgraded system’s debut flight.
The problem was found in a hydraulic pin on the launch tower that was not retracting properly, as announced by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on X.
The company spokesperson also explained the problem facing this massive, 400-foot rocket.
“New rocket, new platform. We’re learning a lot about these systems as we run them for the first time and we’re not going to be able to solve all these problems in the last seconds before we can launch.”
“If that can be resolved tonight, there will be another launch attempt tomorrow,” Musk said of the faulty arm.
Under the new timeline, SpaceX said it will launch Starship during a 90-minute launch window beginning Friday at 5:30 PM Central Time (10:30 GMT).
Ahead of Thursday’s launch, Musk tempered expectations regarding a possible failure by highlighting the “large pipeline of V3 ships and boosters” currently in production.
He noted that any setback would likely delay the frequency of future Starship test flights by no more than a month.
The highly anticipated test flight comes a day after SpaceX filed with U.S. financial regulators to go public in what will be a record-breaking initial public offering ranging from $1.5 trillion to $1.75 trillion.
SpaceX spent more than $15 billion to develop this fully reusable spaceship. The improved system is at the heart of Musk’s ambitions, ranging from space exploration to orbital data centers.
If the launch is successful, it will be the vehicle’s twelfth test flight and the first in seven months. The test flight is also important for carrying out NASA’s Artemis mission, where Starship is expected to serve as the Human Landing System for future lunar missions.
