Starship Launch Scrubbed at Last Minute

UPDATE May 21, 2026 7:32 PM CDT

The 12th Starship test flight—the first for its latest version, Starship V3—was scrubbed at the last minute on Thursday. SpaceX plans to try again on Friday, with a 90-minute launch window opening at 6:30pm Eastern. "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 during the webcast, per Space.com. Huot said the issues that triggered automatic holds during the countdown included problems with a sensor on the rocket tower and with a propellant line attached to the spacecraft, CNN reports. "We're not able to basically troubleshoot all of these issues in those final seconds to get to launch," he said.

May 20, 2026 4:48 PM CDT

SpaceX has circled a new date for what may be its most consequential Starship trial yet. The company now aims to launch its latest, largest version of the rocket—Starship V3—on Thursday with a liftoff window opening at 6:30pm Eastern and plans to stream the suborbital test online, Scientific American reports. The schedule has slipped multiple times since last week, when a worker died at the Starbase site in Texas; federal workplace-safety officials have opened an investigation. It's unclear whether that incident is linked to the launch delay, and SpaceX hasn't commented.

The May 21 flight, the first since October, will be the 12th Starship test overall and the first for the roughly 400-foot-tall V3, designed to carry more than 100 metric tons to orbit and eventually be fully reusable. It will also be the first test of a new launch pad designed for the heavier rocket. SpaceX fully stacked both stages of the rocket at its Starbase site in South Texas on Tuesday, USA Today reports.

• Federal scrutiny of Starship is already high, Scientific American reports. A government watchdog reported in 2025 that the program is running behind, raising questions about NASA's plan to use Starship to ferry astronauts from lunar orbit to the moon's surface as early as 2028 and to test in-orbit docking with the Orion capsule in 2027.
• How the rocket performs could also influence expectations for SpaceX's upcoming IPO, which analysts say could be the largest in history. "For an IPO that is leaning so heavily into narrative and symbolism, we believe this flight is the single most important pre-IPO catalyst remaining on SpaceX's calendar," said PitchBook senior research analyst Franco Granda, per Reuters.