Flight test 12 scrubbed this evening after about 10 minutes spent with the countdown at T-40 seconds and trying to get going smoothly again. I didn't bother to count the number of times the clock stopped and then restarted with 40 seconds on the clock. The clock has been set to try again in 24 hours, Friday 5/22 @ 6:30 PM EDT.
Of course, Flight 12 is the 12th test flight of the Starship vehicle, which flew for the first time in 2023, but the first for this year, and the first Starship test flight since last October's Flight Test 11 - 7 months ago.
"New rocket, new pad, we're learning a lot about these new systems as we execute them for the first time," SpaceX's Dan Huot said in live commentary. "We are expecting to be able to make another flight attempt tomorrow."
The exact issue wasn't mentioned in that Space.com article linked at the top, but about an hour after the stand down from attempting the launch, Elon tweeted this to X:
The aspect I wasn't prepared for was when pop singer Nicki Minaj showed up on the SpaceX coverage in a Starship Tee shirt. I barely know who she is, don't know a single song of hers, but I did see her visiting with President Trump and acting like she thought he was a good guy.
L-R, Kate Tice, SpaceX Quality Manager, Nicki Minaj, SpaceX's Dan Huot.
Everyone else: We've got problems. Let's hide them and launch anyways.
ReplyDeleteSpaceX: We have one problem. We are not launching. Fix it. Retry.
SpaceX really has changed the whole paradigm.
Plus, like SiG has said, SpaceX has a LOT riding on this launch. They want to catch and correct any problems as fast as they can, but also positively fixed. I'm kinda expecting to see the launch go off tomorrow, and will have an optomistic outlook for now.
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