SpaceX’s Starship suffered an abort at T-0 July 16 when some of its Raptor engines failed to ignite. Credit: SpaceX webcast
WASHINGTON — SpaceX aborted the launch of its latest Starship test flight July 16 when some of the vehicle’s engines failed to ignite.
Starship was scheduled to lift off on the Flight 13 mission from the company’s Starbase, Texas, test site at 6:45 p.m. Eastern. However, the launch was aborted just as Raptor engines in the Super Heavy booster ignited. SpaceX said moments later that it was calling off the launch attempt for the day.
“Some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort,” SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk posted on social media about 10 minutes after the abort. “Next launch attempt hopefully in a few days.”
“To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed & replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week,” he posted later.
