Musk’s Mars mission up in the air after SpaceX cancels Starship rocket launch

SpaceX cancelled a planned test flight for its Starship megarocket on Sunday, saying it needed time to troubleshoot problems, in the latest setback for Elon Musk’s behemoth after a series of explosive failures.

The problems have led some observers to doubt whether the world’s biggest and most powerful launch vehicle will be capable of taking humans back to the moon – or achieving Musk’s dreams of colonising Mars.

The rocket had been planned to blast-off from the company’s Starbase in southern Texas at 6.30pm for its 10th flight. However, around 15 minutes before lift-off, SpaceX announced that the launch had been called off.

“Standing down from today’s 10th flight of Starship to allow time to troubleshoot an issue with ground systems,” it said on social media without elaborating.

SpaceX had earlier said that the rocket’s upper stage was being fuelled, suggesting the launch was on. Musk himself had posted on social media an hour earlier: “Starship 10 launching tonight.”