SpaceX Starship 8 test postponed following unresolved booster issue

SpaceX postponed its eighth test of the hulking Starship rocket on Monday, following a flight controller hold placed due to a Super Heavy booster issue that wasn’t resolved in time for launch.

The spacecraft was set to take off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach in Texas, but computers flagged a booster issue with just 23 minutes left in the countdown.

A flight hold was placed, meaning that if the issue was unresolved by T-40 seconds, then the countdown would hold to provide extra time to finish troubleshooting and go through final launch checkouts.

The countdown briefly paused at T-40 and started ticking down for about 10 seconds before another hold was established and the clock went back up to 41 seconds.

After a few minutes, the team decided to offload the launch and try again another day. SpaceX did not announce when they plan another attempt, but assured that it would be soon.

“Standing down from today’s flight test attempt. Starship team is determining the next best available opportunity to fly,” SpaceX posted on X.

The Starship tests have proven to be troublesome for the astronautics company. The seventh test saw the destruction of the main Starship rocket as it exploded in the air, but the “chopsticks” mechanical arms successfully caught the booster for the second time ever as it navigated back to Earth.

Monday’s test was supposed to see the rocket cut across the Gulf of America and practice dispersing dummy satellites before falling back down to earth and landing in the Indian Ocean.

Like with the seventh test, it was also set to release the booster in hopes that the mechanical arms would manage to catch it for a third time.