SpaceX’s Starship test launch scrapped last-minute because of a frozen valve

The backstory: SpaceX has been preparing for a test flight for its giant rocket, Starship, a 400-foot-tall spacecraft designed to take people to the moon and out farther into space. The Starship is designed to be used more than once, and this would be the first time the company’s launched its fully integrated Starship system and Super Heavy booster. The orbital test flight, which has been delayed several times and just got approval to run last Friday, was set to take off on Monday in South Texas.

The development: About eight minutes from launch, SpaceX had to call it off. Crowds had gathered, and the countdown had already started when CEO Elon Musk announced the launch would be postponed because a valve on the ship was frozen. This valve is in Starship’s Super Heavy booster, which uses 33 engines at once to lift the ship off the ground. Even though the launch didn’t happen, the countdown continued, and the crew went through the motions, taking the opportunity to practice the launch process. It’ll be a couple of days before SpaceX tries again.

Key comments:

"With a test such as this, success is measured by how much we can learn, which will inform and improve the probability of success in the future as SpaceX rapidly advances development of Starship," SpaceX tweeted.

"A pressurant valve appears to be frozen, so unless it starts operating soon, no launch today," Musk tweeted before Starship was supposed to liftoff.

"The point of the countdown is to allow the teams to progress that T-zero time in a coordinated fashion and really to unveil any issues prior to the ignition sequence. So the countdown did its job today," said SpaceX's Kate Tice during Monday's launch coverage.