SpaceX halted the 13th Starship test flight after several Super Heavy booster engines did not ignite during the final countdown. The company plans engine replacements and aims to retry early next week, focusing on resolving issues from the previous launch.
SpaceX aborted the planned test flight of its Starship rocket on Thursday after several engines on the Super Heavy booster failed to ignite during the final countdown at the company's South Texas launch facility.
The launch attempt was halted at the Starbase near the US-Mexico border when the countdown reached zero at the scheduled 5:45 p.m. local time window. While propellant loading of over 11.5 million pounds of liquid methane and liquid oxygen proceeded smoothly, computers triggered an automatic abort during the engine startup sequence. Elon Musk confirmed via his platform X that some engines did not start, leading to the abort and propellant offload.
He indicated the next attempt would likely occur early next week after replacing two Raptor engines on the booster. The Super Heavy booster uses 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines, each generating over half a million pounds of thrust. Graphics from SpaceX's live stream showed four engines never ignited. The ignition sequence is staggered after activation of a water-cooled flame diverter to protect the launch pad from extreme heat and vibrations.
This was to be the 13th full-scale Starship launch and the second using the upgraded Version 3 rocket with third-generation Raptor 3 engines. A previous test in May with Raptor 3 engines was mostly successful but did encounter in-flight issues; however, its startup sequence proceeded normally. Flight 13 is crucial for addressing technical problems from Flight 12 two months ago, including a near-90-degree error in the booster's directional flip at stage separation due to engine startup timing differences.
SpaceX modified the startup sequence to be more resilient. Additionally, several booster engines failed to reignite during the landing burn on Flight 12, preventing a controlled Gulf of Mexico splashdown. Achieving this maneuver on Flight 13 would be a key milestone toward reusing boosters at the launch site-a capability demonstrated with Version 2 but not yet with Version 3. The upper stage also suffered an engine shutdown on Flight 12, though it still reached a planned Indian Ocean water landing.
An in-space Raptor engine restart, canceled on Flight 12, remains a major objective for Flight 13. Following the abort, pre-market trading showed SpaceX shares fell three percent on Friday
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