SpaceX’s ambitious Starship rocket nearly lifted off for a test flight Thursday. However, some engines did not start, leading to an aborted launch.

The company, led by Elon Musk, needs to determine the cause before trying another launch. Starship was set for its 13th flight. It stands 407 feet tall and has 33 main engines. This makes it the largest and most powerful rocket in the world.

A launch webcast showed engine ignition starting three seconds before liftoff. Engines that started then shut down quickly, leaving the rocket on the pad. The team then began to drain fuel from the rocket.

Musk stated on X that the next attempt could occur in a few days. Conditions appeared favorable until the engine issues occurred. The rocket carried 20 of SpaceX’s new Starlink satellites for a planned hour-long flight. These satellites would have communicated with existing Starlinks and photographed the heat shield. Both the booster and spacecraft were meant to land in the sea, without recovery.

NASA plans to use Starship for lunar missions, aiming to land astronauts on the moon in the coming years. SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have contracts to build lunar landers. These will return humans to the moon for the first time in over 50 years.

Both companies need to have their landers ready by next year. This will allow the Artemis III crew to practice docking with them in Earth orbit. The following mission, Artemis IV, scheduled for no earlier than 2028, intends to land astronauts at the moon’s south pole.

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