SpaceX canceled the first Starship V3 launch due to a single tower component
Kyiv • UNN
SpaceX has postponed the Starship launch due to a malfunction of a hydraulic pin on the launch tower. A new launch attempt is scheduled for Friday night into Saturday.
SpaceX was one step away from the first launch of a taller and more powerful version of its Starship V3 rocket on Thursday, but an unfortunate issue with the launch tower delayed the launch by at least another day, UNN reports, citing Ars Technica.
Details
SpaceX pushed back the launch time from its South Texas launch site on Thursday afternoon by one hour, but the countdown appeared to be going smoothly, and fueling of the rocket began.
That was the case, at least, until the countdown timer stopped 40 seconds before liftoff. The launch team repeatedly attempted to resume the countdown, but the computer controlling the launch sequence stopped the timer again. There were five holds in total before SpaceX scrubbed the launch attempt.
"It looks like we're not going to be able to get this resolved in time today, so we are standing down from the launch," said Dan Huot, a SpaceX representative hosting the company's livestream on Thursday. "We got the vehicle fully loaded. We ran into a few holds during the countdown process."
Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, attributed the cancellation to a hydraulic pin failing to retract on the umbilical connecting the launch tower to the rocket.
"If this can be fixed tonight, there will be another launch attempt tomorrow," Musk wrote on X.
The 90-minute launch window on Friday opens at 5:30 PM CDT (01:30 AM the following day Kyiv time).
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