SpaceX calls off 1st launch attempt of giant new rocket

A boater passes SpaceX's Starship, the world's biggest and most powerful rocket, as it prepares to lift off from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on April 17, 2023. (Eric Gay / AP)

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas — SpaceX called off the first launch attempt of its giant rocket Monday after a problem cropped up during fuelling.

Elon Musk's company had planned to fly the nearly 400-foot Starship rocket from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border.

The test flight was called off with just over eight minutes left in the countdown because of a stuck valve needed to pressurize the first-stage booster. Launch controllers couldn't fix the frozen valve in time, but for practice, took the clocks down to the 40-second mark before halting the countdown.

No people or satellites were aboard. There won't be another try until at least Thursday.

"Learned a lot today," Musk tweeted after the flight was postponed.

The company plans to use Starship to send people and cargo to the moon and, ultimately, Mars.

On the eve of the launch attempt, cars, campers, RVs and even bicycles and horses jammed the only road leading to the launch pad, where the stainless steel rocket towered above the flat scrubland and prairie. Enthusiasts posed in front of the giant letters that spelled out Starbase at the entrance of the SpaceX complex, and in front of the rocket two miles farther down the road, which ended at a beach on the Gulf of Mexico.

On Monday, spectators were barred from the area, and instead packed a beach about six miles away on South Padre Island.

Ernesto and Maria Carreon drove two hours from Mission, Texas, with their two daughters, 5 and 7, to watch.

"I got sad. They got sad," when the launch attempt was cancelled, Maria Carreon said.

They can't return for the next try but planned to have fun on the beach Monday.

Michelle Vancampenhout, on vacation from Green Bay, Wisconsin, said she'll be back.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience to see it," she said.

------

------

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content