SpaceX Starship Has Been Postponed Due To A Technical Issue

The launch of SpaceX's Starship rocket was postponed on Monday, delaying the start of the initial test flight of the enormous rocket that the company has pushed to begin doing for a long time. 

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As SpaceX tried to fuel up the large booster designed to power Starship off the launch pad, the company encountered a pressure-related issue, as Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, explained in a live streaming of the launch.

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In a tweet, Mr. Musk stated that there appears to be a problem with one of the pressurant valves.

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In order to actually be able to launch the rocket in a test flight, the company will have to wait at least 48 hours before it can conduct the test flight. Despite confirming that it was standing down in a tweet, the company has not given a specific date or time when it might attempt another flight. Meanwhile, SpaceX teams were still working on fueling the vehicle in preparation for future attempts to fuel it.

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The SpaceX founder, Elon Musk, worked on Sunday, to play down expectations about the launch, by discussing potential risks related to the flight and technical challenges that may arise during the launch. The executive expressed concern that a problem with the powerful engines installed on Starship's Super Heavy booster could wind up destroying a part of the rocket or the launchpad if the engines fail. 

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SpaceX, however, was not confronted with these risks, at least not on Monday. Instead of launching the rocket, the massive rocket stood upright on the pad. There are many challenges involved in fueling rockets, especially because of the fuel properties and the complex system of valves that are involved.

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It took the National Aeronautics and Space Administration quite a while last year to prove that it was capable of successfully fueling up its own large, new rocket for its first flight. It was eventually possible for NASA to accomplish this, and it successfully launched its Space Launch System rocket in November.

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Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the company formally known as SpaceX, was planning to launch Starship as early as 9:20 a.m. Eastern Time, blasting off the rocket from a company launchpad along the Gulf of Mexico, located east of Brownsville, Texas.

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In South Padre Island, Texas, crowds of people began streaming away from the Cameron County Amphitheater after SpaceX was forced to cancel Monday's attempt after it had been scrubbed. 

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In addition to employees of the company and former employees of the company, investors had gathered in Brownsville in order to catch a glimpse of the first launch.

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“There are always challenges involved when it comes to designing a new launch vehicle," stated Daniel Dumbacher, executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a former NASA official, said in an interview.

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In a Starship discussion he participated in on Twitter, Mr. Musk highlighted the difficulties in creating valves that are able to function as designed when they are faced with intense cold and heat. "The challenge lies in having a valve operate at a multitude of temperatures over the course of a long period of time," he said.

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Starship is composed of two separate vehicles: the Super Heavy booster and a spacecraft that is attached to the booster's top and is also known as Starship. In order for the booster to pull a fully stacked rocket off of its launchpads, the spacecraft would separate from it shortly after liftoff, so as to begin its journey toward space shortly after liftoff.

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Starships are designed to transport huge quantities of materials into orbit or a significant number of crew members. For the test launch, no one is expected to be on board the spacecraft.

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On the demonstration flight, the Starship spacecraft is expected to fly for around 90 minutes after separating from the booster, under the best-case scenario. There is a possibility that the ship would land in the Pacific Ocean, while the booster would land in the Gulf of Mexico.