SpaceX Unexpectedly Cancels Second Starship V3 Launch After Ignition

SpaceX unexpectedly halted its second launch attempt of the upgraded Starship rocket system on Thursday, just moments after the booster ignited at the South Texas facility.

CEO Elon Musk shared on his social media platform, X, that “[s]ome engines failed to ignite, leading to an automatic launch abort,” and noted that the company would replace two of them. He indicated that the next Starship launch attempt would be pushed back to the following week.

SpaceX intended to launch its first third-generation Starlink satellites into orbit; however, these satellites are designed to burn up approximately 20 minutes post-deployment, given that Starship has yet to demonstrate its ability to reach Earth orbit.

This was SpaceX’s first Starship test launch attempt since its public debut on June 12, which was the largest IPO in history. The company raised over $85 billion from that transaction, briefly aligning its valuation with Amazon and Microsoft, although its stock has seen a steady decline in the weeks following.

On Thursday, SpaceX’s stock closed under the IPO price of $135 and dropped over 4% in after-hours trading due to the aborted launch.

SpaceX was attempting to return to flight just weeks after the inaugural launch of Starship V3 in May, a mission that yielded mixed results.

Successfully lifting off from the launchpad with the first version of the upgraded rocket was a significant breakthrough, facilitating the deployment of several Starlink simulators. However, the Super Heavy booster stage failed before it could attempt a simulated landing in the Gulf of Mexico, leading to a review mandated by the FAA. Earlier this week, the FAA authorized SpaceX to fly Starship again after identifying various causes and required fixes for the booster failure.

During the May mission, the Starship’s upper stage also lost an engine while deploying the Starlink simulators, yet it successfully conducted a simulated landing over water.

SpaceX aimed to advance further on Thursday with the launch of the V3 Starlink satellites. The upgraded Starship and Starlink are crucial to SpaceX’s ambitious goal of proving that “orbital data centers” are both technologically and economically viable. Starlink is the largest revenue source and the only profitable aspect of SpaceX’s operations.

Thursday’s launch attempt appeared to proceed smoothly, with only a brief hold in the countdown at T-minus one minute before the planned launch. This hold was resolved quickly, allowing the countdown to resume.

As the countdown concluded, the water deluge system at the launchpad activated, and the booster stage ignited its engines — only for everything to shut down abruptly. Graphics from SpaceX’s broadcast indicated that four of the new Raptor engines failed to ignite at launch.

SpaceX must now purge all propellant from both the Super Heavy booster and the upper stage to determine what went wrong on Thursday.

This story has been updated with additional information from Elon Musk.