The launch of the Starship spacecraft on its first test flight will not take place on Monday due to a technical problem that occurred in the last minutes of preparations, SpaceX announced during a live video broadcast, Reuters and Agerpres reported.

However, SpaceX crews continued to countdown and simulate liftoff operations in the form of a dress rehearsal, which will be halted shortly before the scheduled launch time.

The launch was to take place from the Starbase space base, located in the southern part of the American state of Texas.

Starship is a super heavy reusable spacecraft. It is the tallest and most powerful launch vehicle ever built. It consists of two components: a space vehicle – the upper stage, and a giant rocket – the lower stage, called Super Heavy, which sends the device into space.

The 120-meter-tall car was developed by Elon Musk’s company for several years for space missions beyond the Earth’s orbit, to the Moon and Mars.

SpaceX’s plans for Starship

The idea of ​​a fully reusable spacecraft, Elon Musk’s grand strategy, is to lower launch prices.

Each Starship launch could cost “less than $10 million,” he said.

In February, SpaceX conducted an impressive ground test of super-heavy rocket engines.

In total, 31 of the Raptor’s 33 engines were fired, “the most rocket engines fired simultaneously in history,” according to SpaceX.

A few months ago, NASA’s SLS rocket (98 meters tall) became the most powerful operational rocket in the world after its first flight as part of the Artemis 1 lunar mission.

Next week, the SLS rocket may be supplanted by Elon Musk’s rocket.