On Monday evening, SpaceX announced that it had canceled a second attempt at the 10th test launch of Starship from its Starbase facility in Texas due to weather conditions not being met.
The launch was delayed due to cloud cover that violated the company's “anvil rule.” Earlier on Sunday, the first attempt was aborted for technical reasons.
“We're canceling the launch. Unfortunately, today's launch is cancelled due to weather,” SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot said less than a minute before the scheduled launch. The company was counting down to the launch of Starship's 10th test, scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.
According to data published in X, at the beginning of the launch window, the probability of favorable weather conditions was estimated at 55%.
“We avoided adverse weather conditions that would have created a 70 percent risk of disrupting launch protocols,” Huot explained before the final cancellation. He noted that the cloud cover violated the internal “anvil rule,” increasing the likelihood of electrical discharges during launch.
The next launch attempt is theoretically possible on Tuesday, but the exact time of the next launch window has not yet been determined.
The current cancellations come two months after the loss of the Starship spacecraft during its ninth test flight in June.
“Following the completion of the investigation into the Mission 9 incident and the Ship 36 static burn anomaly, hardware and procedure upgrades were implemented to improve reliability,” SpaceX said ahead of the launch attempt.
The 10th test flight was originally scheduled to take place Sunday evening from Boca Chica, Texas, but that launch was also canceled. It would have been the fourth launch this year for Starship, the world's most powerful rocket, designed to replace the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.
“The cancellation of Starship's 10th flight is due to the need for diagnostics of ground systems,” the company said in a statement to X on Sunday.
If the tenth mission is successful, a key task will be testing the landing impulse with non-standard engine configurations. According to the plan, one of the three central engines will be deliberately deactivated during the final stage of landing to collect data on the operation of the backup engine from the middle ring. The booster will then switch to the two central engines, hover over the ocean surface, and end the maneuver by falling into the Gulf of Mexico.
Starship's upper stage will perform several tasks in orbit, including the launch of eight Starlink mockups similar in size to the next-generation satellites. These mockups will be on a suborbital trajectory and will be destroyed upon atmospheric reentry.
A re-ignition of the Raptor engine in space is also planned.
The experiments include testing the thermal protection tile materials to identify weak points and evaluate their performance when the stage returns to the launch pad.
During the previous attempt in June (flight 9), the ship was destroyed during pre-flight checks. In March, missions 7 and 8 suffered a similar fate: the first exploded immediately after launch, the second was lost a few minutes into the flight.
SpaceX emphasizes that test launches continue to provide critical data for the development of new versions of Starship and super-heavy launch vehicles.
“With the expansion of Starfactory manufacturing capacity at Starbase and the active construction of launch infrastructure in Texas and Florida, the Starship program is moving toward a high-speed, fully reusable launch system,” the official statement said.
Earlier Sunday, SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, delivering 2,200 kilograms (4,800 pounds) of cargo to the ISS. The mission marked the 50th flight of the Dragon capsule to the station and the 33rd resupply mission.
Sourse: www.upi.com
