(UPDATE) SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, United States - SpaceX called off a planned test flight for its Starship megarocket on Sunday, saying it needed time to troubleshoot problems, in the latest setback for Elon Musk’s behemoth after a series of explosive failures.

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The recent problems have led some observers to doubt whether the world’s biggest and most powerful launch vehicle will be capable of taking humans back to the Moon -- or achieving Musk’s dreams of colonizing Mars.

The rocket had been scheduled to blast off on its tenth flight from the company’s Starbase in southern Texas at 6:30 pm.

SpaceX cancels Starship megarocket launch 

However around 15 minutes before lift-off, SpaceX scrubbed the flight, which is a relatively common event for space launches.

“Standing down from today’s tenth flight of Starship to allow time to troubleshoot an issue with ground systems,” it said on X, without elaborating.

SpaceX did not immediately announce a new launch date, but a countdown on the company’s website suggested there would be another attempt at the same time on Monday evening.

Road closures nearby Starbase indicated that Monday and Tuesday had been cleared for potential attempts.

The hour-long mission had been planned to put the rocket’s upper stage through a series of trials before the lower stage booster splashed down in the Indian Ocean.

An hour before lift-off was scrapped, Musk posted on X that “Starship 10 launching tonight.” 

String of Explosions 

Starship is central to billionaire SpaceX founder Musk’s ambition of colonizing Mars, while NASA is counting on a modified version to return Americans to the Moon.

However the rocket’s upper stage -- which is the spacecraft intended to carry crew and cargo -- has exploded in all three previous test flights in 2025.

The 123-meter rocket was designed to eventually be fully reusable, but the company has not yet managed to get the upper stage to deliver a payload to space or return to the launch site.

SpaceX has succeeded in catching the lower stage booster with giant “chopstick” launch tower arms three times, but the tenth flight will not attempt the feat.

‘Lot of Pressure’ 

Dallas Kasaboski, a space analyst for consulting firm Analysys Mason, told AFP before the canceled launch that the recent failures were beginning to take the sheen off SpaceX’s golden reputation.

“I think there is a lot of pressure on this mission,” he said. “We’ve had so many tests and it hasn’t proven itself reliable -- the successes have not exceeded the failures.”

The world’s richest man has staked the company’s future on Starship, planning to eventually retire its current generation of rockets and spacecraft in favor of the new system.

SpaceX cancels Starship megarocket launch 

Even if the tenth test eventually succeeds, formidable technical hurdles remain -- from making the system fully and rapidly reusable at low cost to proving it can refuel super-cooled propellant in orbit, a prerequisite for deep-space missions.

Still, SpaceX is pressing ahead, increasing the frequency of launches despite criticism from environmental groups over ecological impacts.