{"id":129529,"date":"2026-07-17T11:48:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T06:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=129529"},"modified":"2026-07-17T11:48:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T06:48:50","slug":"spacex-abruptly-scrubs-starship-test-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129529\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX abruptly scrubs Starship test flight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Web desk(National Times)- SpaceX scrubbed on Thursday what was to be its first Starship flight since the company went public, abruptly calling it off just as the booster began to ignite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSome of the engines didn\u2019t start, triggering an automatic launch abort. Now offloading propellant,\u201d company head Elon Musk said on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTo be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed &amp; replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week,\u201d he added in a later post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The flight was to be the mammoth rocket\u2019s 13th overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When it eventually takes off, the flight aims will be similar to those of a mostly&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2002477\">successful voyage<\/a>&nbsp;carried out in May, which debuted the latest edition of the powerful Starship, its third-generation model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The goals of that test were essentially to demonstrate the new designs in flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But it was not without a few glitches, including engine issues with the Super Heavy booster that necessitated a crash into the Gulf of Mexico rather than a precision return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The company said there have been \u201cseveral modifications to hardware and software to address issues seen on the previous flight\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SpaceX will aspire the next time around to execute a launch, ascent, stage separation, boostback burn and landing burn of the booster offshore without any hiccups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The upper stage will deploy 20 Starlink V3 satellites, and SpaceX said it will test out a relight of a Raptor engine in space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It will also test upgrades to Starship\u2019s heat shield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The flight will be the first after Musk\u2019s SpaceX&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2007472\">went public<\/a>&nbsp;on Wall Street in June, with a record initial public offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Thursday, SpaceX stock closed at $131.11, below its IPO price of $135.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The rocket company has rapidly expanded its satellite internet service and voiced lofty ambitions for AI data centers in space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There\u2019s a lot riding on SpaceX\u2019s progress: the company is under contract with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to produce a modified version of Starship to serve as a lunar landing system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Web desk(National Times)- SpaceX scrubbed on Thursday what was to be its first Starship flight since the company went public, abruptly calling it off just as the booster began to ignite. \u201cSome of the engines didn\u2019t start, triggering an automatic launch abort. Now offloading propellant,\u201d company head Elon Musk said on X. \u201cTo be confident [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>SpaceX abruptly scrubs Starship test flight - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129529\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SpaceX abruptly scrubs Starship test flight - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Web desk(National Times)- SpaceX scrubbed on Thursday what was to be its first Starship flight since the company went public, abruptly calling it off just as the booster began to ignite. \u201cSome of the engines didn\u2019t start, triggering an automatic launch abort. Now offloading propellant,\u201d company head Elon Musk said on X. \u201cTo be confident [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129529\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-17T06:48:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-17T06:48:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-9-23.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129529\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129529\/\",\"name\":\"SpaceX abruptly scrubs Starship test flight - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129529\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129529\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-9-23.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-17T06:48:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-17T06:48:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129529\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129529\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129529\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-9-23.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-9-23.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129529\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"SpaceX abruptly scrubs Starship test flight\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"SpaceX abruptly scrubs Starship test flight - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129529\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"SpaceX abruptly scrubs Starship test flight - Nation","og_description":"Web desk(National Times)- SpaceX scrubbed on Thursday what was to be its first Starship flight since the company went public, abruptly calling it off just as the booster began to ignite. \u201cSome of the engines didn\u2019t start, triggering an automatic launch abort. 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