Elon Musk's SpaceX delays tenth Starship test flight, here's why

SpaceX has postponed its highly anticipated 10th Starship flight due to some issue with its ground systems just minutes before the liftoff. The launch was scheduled to take place on Sunday evening (August 24). The flight was to take off from the company’s Starbase facility in South Texas, but it was canceled roughly half an hour before the scheduled launch window opened. The company confirmed about the cancelled flight by sharing a post of social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter). “Standing down from today's tenth flight of Starship to allow time to troubleshoot an issue with ground systems,” wrote the company.


A critical mission and the mounting pressure
The tenth Starship flight which now stands cancelled was seen as a pivotal motor for Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The first two Starship flights launched in 2025 ended in explosions with minutes and third failed to deploy satellites and went out of control. The fourth Starship flight exploded during the fuelling test stand in June this year.

The stakes for this mission were high, with SpaceX aiming to demonstrate Starship’s ability to perform mid-flight maneuvers and attempt a controlled offshore landing of its Super Heavy booster. Unlike the earlier flights, this Starship rocket focused on refining flight dynamics.


Learning through failure
Despite a bumpy start this year, SpaceX maintains the stand that each failed flight offers some valuable data which will help the company in improving future launches. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also emphasised that Starship is designed to be fully reusable and is central to his long-term vision of human settlement on Mars.


Elon Musk shares timeline for Mars travel
Last month, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reignited excitement around his company’s plan to start interplanetary travel. In a video of Starship shared by Elon Musk filmed at SpaceX’s Starbase facility and it highlights the progress in the production and testing of Starship. Musk has also emphasised in the past that each launch is a step toward building a self-sustaining civilization on Mars, a goal he described as essential for the long-term survival of humanity.

In the same video an X User named Sanket asked Musk, “Hopefully in our lifetime we see humans settle on Mars”.

To this Elon Musk gave a one-word reply “Yes”. This means that the SpaceX is working really hard to make the travel to Mars a reality soon.