Two Scrubs, One Starship: Third Time Lucky For Spacex?
Elon Musk’s monster rocket, Starship, remains firmly on the launchpad after two scrubs in a row, first due to an oxygen leak and then some clouds.
The first scrub came on Saturday, shortly after SpaceX began fueling the rocket for its tenth test flight. The countdown clock was abruptly stopped just after the 40-minute mark, and the company posted: “Standing down from today’s tenth flight of Starship to allow time to troubleshoot an issue with ground systems.”
SpaceX boss Elon Musk later took to his social media mouthpiece, X, to say: “Ground side liquid oxygen leak needs to be fixed. Aiming for another launch attempt tomorrow.”
That launch attempt was also scrubbed. This time, the countdown clock got to 40 seconds before controllers decided the weather wasn’t going to cooperate and scrubbed the launch. SpaceX posted: “Standing down from today’s flight test attempt due to weather.” Musk clarified: “Launch called off for tonight due to anvil clouds over launch site (lightning risk).”
The weather had been looking iffy. SpaceX reported it was “55 percent favorable for launch at the start of the window” during the countdown.
The team said that it intends to try again on Tuesday, August 26, with a launch window opening at 1830 CT (2330 UTC).
Sooner rather than later would be good as far as NASA is concerned. The agency is depending on the Human Landing System (HLS) variant of the spacecraft to return astronauts to the Moon in 2027. Worryingly for the US space agency and its Artemis lunar ambitions, SpaceX and Musk appear obsessed with Mars rather than with the series of launches that will be needed to get astronauts on the lunar surface. SpaceX is also expected to perform one uncrewed demonstration mission before NASA will risk a crewed landing using the vehicle.
Multiple Starship launches will be required for the lunar mission to fuel the Starship HLS. Once in lunar orbit, the Starship HLS will rendezvous with a crewed Orion spacecraft, launched on a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and transport the crew to the lunar surface.
However, before that can happen, SpaceX must show the Starship system can work. ®
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