Texas: Elon Musk's Starship Test Flight Delayed - Here's Why

The Starship test flight of billionaire Elon Musk's company SpaceX has been postponed after announcing that the Starship launch will commence on April 17.

The reason behind the Starship launch delay was a frozen valve that would reportedly delay the uncrewed test flight for at least two days, according to Reuters.

SpaceX's Starship was dubbed the world's largest rocket if it ever took flight beyond Earth. The vehicle, which stands taller than the Statue of Liberty, was preparing to launch from the company's "Starbase" facility at Boca Chica, Texas when it was called off.

It was earlier announced to have a two-hour launch window that started at 8 a.m. The initial launch window was a 90-minute flight into space, which was then changed to 48 hours due to a frozen pressurization valve in the lower-stage rocket booster.

The earlier available launch window for the Starship test flight would be on Wednesday.

The company later noted in a tweet that the teams are working to push toward April 20, Wednesday, for a second Starship launch attempt.

Starship Test Flight Delayed

Elon Musk, co-founder and CEO of SpaceX, said that expectations should stay low for the Starship system, noting that "success is not what should be expected," as reported by The Guardian.

Musk added that he guessed tomorrow would not be a success, saying that it is just a "very fundamentally difficult thing."

SpaceX has never shied away from having test flights explode. Musk said that private venture benefits from understanding what goes wrong.

Instead of launching the rocket, the SpaceX engineers used the countdown as a "wet-dress rehearsal fueling test," as cited by CBS News.

SpaceX commentator Kate Tice said that any data they can collect will be "super helpful."

Tice added that they are continuing to gather information, which will provide the team with the knowledge for the next launch attempt.

Engineers noted problems with a valve used to help pressurize less than 10 minutes to go. The tanks must be pressurized to specific levels.

Musk said on Sunday that the chances of them calling to abort the launch "are high," which was why he wanted to set expectations appropriately.

He went on to say that the launch is not like "a train leaving the station" at the exam scheduled time. He said it would be the "first launch of a very complicated, gigantic rocket."

Elon Musk's Starship

Many expecting viewers filled coastal locations on the Gulf of Mexico to watch the postponed historic event.

Musk was reportedly hoping to upend the rocket business with the launch of the gigantic rocket.

BBC News noted that the vehicle was aimed to be fully and rapidly reusable, with Musk having a goal to fly people and satellites to orbit several times a day the same way a jet airliner might do.

In addition, the billionaire also believes that he could introduce the era of interplanetary travel for humans.

The U.S. space agency NASA granted SpaceX almost $3 billion to develop a variant of Starship that could help its astronauts return to the moon.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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