AUSTIN, Texas — SpaceX called off the latest test flight of its Starship/Super Heavy vehicle March 3 after it was unable to resolve issues with the rocket in the final minutes of the countdown.
The company had been working towards a liftoff at 6:45 p.m. Eastern of the Flight 8 mission from its Starbase test site at Boca Chica, Texas. During the countdown, SpaceX said they saw an issue with the Super Heavy booster that might cause the company to go into a hold at the T-40 second mark.
That hold did take place, and while the hosts of the SpaceX launch webcast stated that the booster issue appeared to be resolved, there was another, unspecified issue with the Starship upper stage. Several minutes later the countdown resumed, only to stop a few seconds later and recycled to the T-40 second mark.
The company then scrubbed the launch for the day. “Standing down from today’s flight test attempt. Starship team is determining the next best available opportunity to fly,” the company stated on social media. That could be as soon as March 4, SpaceX noted on its webcast.
“Too many question marks about this flight and then we were 20 bar low on ground spin start pressure,” SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk posted. “Best to destack, inspect both stages and try again in a day or two.”
This will be the first Starship/Super Heavy mission since the failed Flight 7 mission Jan. 16 where contact with Starship was lost about eight and a half minutes after liftoff. The company announced Feb. 24 that it concluded the vehicle suffered a “harmonic response several times stronger in flight than had been seen during testing” that stressed propellant lines. That caused leaks that created fires in the aft “attic” section of the vehicle, causing all but one of the six engines there to perform controlled shutdowns.
SpaceX said it made changes to hardware in the vehicle and operations to prevent similar damage from happening again. It also added vents and a gaseous nitrogen purge system to reduce the flammability of the attic section.
The company said the experience of Flight 7 was part of the company’s overall approach to vehicle development that rapid iteration. “We fly to learn and we’re learning a lot,” SpaceX’s Kate Tice said during the company’s launch webcast.
Starship Florida preview
SpaceX used the launch webcast to provide an update on its plans to build and launch Starship vehicles from Florida.
“Expansion of Starship production and launch operations in Florida will enable SpaceX to significantly increase the build and flight rates for Starship,” the company stated in an update posted on its website. “With production, integration, refurbishment, and launch facilities in Florida as well as Texas, we will be in a position to quickly ramp Starship’s launch rate via rapid reusability.”
That includes construction of a Starship integration facility called Gigabay at the Kennedy Space Center. The facility, about 115 meters tall, will have 11 times the square-footage as SpaceX’s Megabay factory at Starbase and 24 “work cells” for integration and refurbishment of vehicles, versus five at Megabay.
SpaceX said it expects Gigabay to be completed by the end of 2026. Another Gigabay will be built at Starbase, also slated to be done by the end of 2026. Starship vehicles will initially be shipped from Starbase to Florida until SpaceX builds both the Gigabay as well as facility like Starbase’s Starfactory for manufacturing Starships.
SpaceX said it is also working to complete a Starship launch pad at Launch Complex 39A at KSC. The launch tower there is complete and SpaceX said it will install the pad’s deflector system, which provides water for cooling and sound suppression, in the coming months. “Pending completion of environmental reviews, SpaceX intends to conduct Starship’s first Florida launch from LC-39A in late 2025.”
The company added it is continuing to pursue use of Space Launch Complex 37 at neighboring Cape Canaveral Space Force Station as a second Starship launch facility. That pad was most recently used by United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4, which has been retired.
SpaceX said it has obtained a limited “right of entry” to the pad to conduct additional due diligence as part of an environmental review led by the Department of the Air Force. Work on that environmental assessment started a year ago, and according to the website for the study, a draft environmental impact statement is scheduled to be released in the spring for public comment, followed by a final version and record of decision in the fall.
