SpaceX Aborts Starship Launch After Four Engines Fail to Ignite; Next Attempt Planned Next Week

SpaceX aborted its second attempt to fly the upgraded Starship rocket system on Thursday moments after the booster stage ignited at the company’s launch site in South Texas. Graphics on the company’s live broadcast showed four of the new Raptor engines did not start, triggering an automatic shutdown.

CEO Elon Musk posted on X that some engines failed to ignite and that the company will replace two of them.

He added that SpaceX will not attempt another launch until next week. The company had planned to deploy its first third-generation Starlink satellites, though those satellites are designed to reenter the atmosphere about 20 minutes after release because Starship has not yet reached orbit. Thursday’s countdown included a brief hold at T-minus one minute that was quickly cleared.

The water deluge system activated and the booster began firing before the abort. SpaceX must now drain propellant from both stages before it can complete a full investigation. The attempt marked SpaceX’s first Starship flight since the company went public on June 12 in an IPO that raised more than $85 billion.

The stock closed below its $135 IPO price on Thursday and dropped more than 4 percent in after-hours trading. The flight was also the first since the May debut of Starship V3. In that mission the Super Heavy booster failed before a planned simulated landing in the Gulf of Mexico, while the upper stage lost one engine yet completed its own water landing.

The FAA completed its review of the booster issue and cleared the vehicle to fly again earlier this week.