SpaceX postpones test flight of Starship rocket

BOCA CHICA, Texas — Elon Musk's SpaceX called off on Monday a highly anticipated launch of its powerful new Starship rocket, delaying the first uncrewed test flight of the vehicle into space.

The two-stage rocket system, standing at 120 meters high, was originally scheduled for blastoff from the SpaceX facility at Boca Chica, Texas, during a two-hour launch window that began at 8 am.

But the California-based space company announced in a live webcast during the final minutes of the countdown that it was scrubbing the flight attempt for at least 48 hours, citing a pressurization issue in the lower-stage rocket booster.

Musk, the company's billionaire founder and chief executive, told a private Twitter audience on Sunday night that the mission stood a better chance of being scrubbed than proceeding to launch on Monday.

"There's a million ways this rocket could fail. We're going to be very careful and if we see anything that gives us concern, we'll postpone."

US space agency NASA has picked the Starship spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the moon in late 2025 — a mission known as Artemis III — for the first time since the Apollo program ended in 1972.

A successful debut flight would also instantly rank the Starship system as the most powerful launch vehicle on Earth.

Agencies Via Xinhua