SpaceX came within half a minute of launching its newest and largest Starship rocket Thursday evening before a series of problems halted the countdown at its Starbase facility near the Texas-Mexico border.
According to the Associated Press, the 407-foot rocket was set to begin a space-skimming test flight extending halfway around the world. Instead, issues arose with the brand-new launch pad, and the company ran out of its launch window.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the hydraulic pin holding the launch tower's arm in place failed to retract. He said if the problem could be fixed quickly, another launch attempt would be made Friday.
The rocket is carrying 20 mock Starlink satellites that are to be released before the spacecraft makes a controlled entry into the Indian Ocean at the end of the roughly hourlong flight. This will be the 12th test flight for a Starship and the first since last fall.
It is also the first flight for the Starship V3, a newer and larger version of the rocket. NASA is relying on this version of Starship to land astronauts on the moon within the next few years.
Thursday's scrubbed launch came one day after Musk announced that SpaceX would be going public.
