Proactive Investors - SpaceX may have to further delay the launch of its largest and most powerful rocket, Starship, founder Elon Musk has admitted.
At the start of the week, a technical hitch forced the company to press pause just seconds away from lift-off, moving to a launch window on Thursday 20 April, aka 4/20 (one of Musk's favourite numbers).
But he said today in a tweet that fixing the frozen pressure valve was not the only problem the technicians are dealing with.
"The team is working around the clock on many issues. Maybe 4/20, maybe not," he said.
SpaceX said in a statement that it is on track to attempt the flight test no earlier than 20 April.
There were industry whispers that this date had definitely been ruled out, either by a matter of days or perhaps more, with removal of temporary flight restrictions on the day.
April 20 is definitely out for the Starship flight test, per two sources. No confirmation on whether it slips just a day or further. For more details I will reefer you to SpaceX’s social channels.— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) April 18, 2023
Thursday's 62 minute launch window opens at 8:28am central time (2.28pm in London) and closes at 9:30am.
On Wednesday the company was on course for another Falcon 9 launch of its Starlink satellites.