SpaceX delays launch of bigger Starship; last minute glitch halts debut

At T-40 seconds, an unknown issue tripped the computer systems and placed an automatic hold on liftoff, scrubbing what would have been the 12th test flight of Starship and the debut of an entirely redesigned rocket that SpaceX has spent years and billions of dollars building toward. The crowd watching from South Padre Island went quiet. The rocket stayed on the pad. SpaceX will try again Friday.

Rocket test and wall street debut in same week

SpaceX filed its IPO prospectus with the SEC on Wednesday the same day the rocket was being loaded onto its new launch pad and the Starship launch is widely seen as the company's last real opportunity to wow investors before shares hit the public market. Timing a rocket test and a Wall Street debut in the same week is either brilliant or reckless, depending on how Friday goes.

What SpaceX is trying to fly is genuinely different from anything it has launched before. The new Starship V3 stands 407 feet tall 10 feet taller than previous versions and is launching for the first time from Starbase's second orbital launch pad. It runs on dozens of new Raptor 3 engines, powered by a completely redesigned fuel system in the booster. SpaceX says V3 is designed to deliver 100 metric tons to Earth's orbit in a fully reusable configuration, with turnaround times closer to commercial aviation than traditional rocketry.

Because this is the first flight of a heavily redesigned vehicle, SpaceX is managing expectations carefully. The booster will not attempt a return to the launch site for a catch instead, it will perform its burns and land in the Gulf of Mexico, about seven minutes after liftoff. The iconic "chopstick" catch that made earlier flights so dramatic will have to wait.

Twenty Starlink simulator satellites will be deployed on a suborbital trajectory roughly 17 minutes into the flight, with two modified satellites also released to scan Starship's heat shield and beam images back to mission control. Several heat shield tiles have been painted white specifically to act as imaging targets a quiet but telling detail about how much work still lies ahead on reentry.

SpaceX has poured more than USD 15 billion into the Starship program, according to its IPO filing. The space segment is currently loss-making it recorded an operating loss of USD 657 million in 2025, while Starlink carried the company, bringing in USD 11.4 billion in revenue and USD 4.4 billion in operating income. Starship is the bet that changes that equation eventually.

NASA's Artemis program is counting on it too, with Starship expected to serve as the lunar lander for missions targeting the Moon's south pole as early as 2028.