“The commercial spaceflight company SpaceX scrapped its first scheduled test flight of Starship, a huge, stainless-steel rocket that could one day carry humans to the moon, Mars and beyond.
“The first launch attempt was set to take place in South Texas during a 150-minute window on Monday morning. Just about 10 minutes before the anticipated liftoff, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in tweet that a valve appeared to be frozen, rendering the mission untenable.
“The issue occurred in the spacecraft’s super-heavy booster, the company said on a livestream. The booster uses 33 engines working in synchronicity to lift the 400-foot-tall rocket off the ground.
“The decision to use such a large number of engines — more than any other rocket ever made — is a trade-off, says Paulo Lozano, director of MIT’s space propulsion laboratory.”
Read more at NPR
