SpaceX canceled its first attempt to launch its integrated Starship spacecraft from Texas on April 17 due to a valve problem. SpaceX announced that it has suspended the launch of its Starship and Super Heavy launch vehicles from the Starbase test site in Boca Chica, Texas, less than 10 minutes before its scheduled 9:20 a.m. launch in the East, after it said there was a problem with pressure. nose rocket.

Just minutes before SpaceX announced the cleanup, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted, “The pressure valve looks frozen, so if it doesn’t start working soon, there won’t be a launch today.”

The company reported no other major issues with the vehicle and the weather was acceptable. The company continued the T-40’s countdown to the one-second mark, finished loading its rocket fuel, and used the launch attempt as a wetsuit rehearsal. Commentators on the SpaceX webcast said it would take at least 48 hours for them to attempt another launch.

After scrubbing, Musk tweeted, “I learned a lot today, now I’m draining the fuel, try again in a few days.”

The launch will be the first flight of an integrated Starship/Super Heavy following several low-altitude test flights of the Starship prototypes and static firing tests of the Super Heavy. The device flies along an “almost orbital” orbit, reaching a maximum altitude of about 235 kilometers. The Starship will crash into the Pacific Ocean off Hawaii and the Super Heavy will crash into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Boca Chica; No vehicle can be recovered.

SpaceX moved forward with its launch plans after obtaining an FAA license to launch a test flight on April 14. An FAA spokesperson said last week that the agency spent more than 500 days reviewing the launch license application, which SpaceX had to modify several times, in part because of the size and complexity of the spacecraft. This is the longest the agency has spent reviewing any commercial launch license application.

Musk didn’t expect the launch during an April 16 online discussion about paying subscribers to Twitter, the social network he bought last year. “This is a very risky flight. It’s not certain at all,” he said.

His main concern was that the rocket would explode during or just after launch, damaging the launch pad. “It will probably take us several months to rebuild the launch pad,” he said of this scenario. “So my main hope is that fate smiles at us and we clear the launch pad before something goes wrong.”

“Maybe it’ll be a second, maybe a third, but if by success you mean going into orbit, it probably won’t be successful tomorrow,” he said. “If we get any information that allows us to improve the design of future Starship structures, it will be a success.”