SpaceX Starship Launch Aborted on the Pad at the last moment

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship stands ready but was aborted before liftoff, in Starbase, Texas, Thursday, July 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX’s mega Starship rocket came within a few seconds of blasting off on a test flight Thursday, but some of the engines failed to start triggering a launch abort.

Elon Musk’s company said it will have to figure out what went wrong before making another attempt to send Starship on a space-skimming flight halfway around the world. It was supposed to be the 13th flight for Starship, which at 407 feet (124 metres) tall with 33 main engines is the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket.

Twenty of SpaceX’s newest and most advanced Starlinks were on board Starship for release during the planned hourlong flight. The internet satellites were going to try communicating with Starlinks already in orbit while taking photos of Starship’s heat shield. Neither the first-stage booster nor spacecraft were meant to be recovered, with both ending up in the sea.

NASA is counting on Starship to land its astronauts on the moon in the next few years.

___

Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press