SpaceX scrubs Starship Flight 13 launch at Starbase, Texas

UPDATE:

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — SpaceX has announced they have scrubbed the launch. A future date will be announced at a later time.

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SpaceX is less than one hour away from opening the launch window for Starship Flight 13, with liftoff scheduled as early as 5:45 p.m. CT (6:45 p.m. ET) from Starbase, Texas.

The flight test marks another milestone in the development of Starship, which NASA has selected as a lunar lander for future Artemis missions. The vehicle plays a critical role in NASA’s plans to return humans to the moon. NASA is planning a demonstration mission in low Earth orbit next year to test docking capabilities between the Orion spacecraft and commercial lunar landers being developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin.

“Starship itself has to still make it to orbit,” said Florida Tech space expert Dr. Don Platt. “The Artemis mission will dock with it, but there’s no expectation of having life support systems or anything else on the Starship for Artemis III.” At Kennedy Space Center, preparations for Artemis are already underway. NASA says the twin solid rocket boosters for the Space Launch System are being stacked, launch teams are conducting countdown simulations, and Orion’s heat shield has now been attached.

NASA has said that both SpaceX and Blue Origin are developing test versions of their lunar landers for next year’s demonstration mission, which is designed to reduce risk before astronauts travel beyond low Earth orbit.

Starship Flight 13 will attempt several objectives during today’s test flight, including deploying next-generation Starlink satellites and demonstrating capabilities needed for future missions to the moon and beyond.

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