SpaceX Cancelled Starship Flight 10 Launch Again

Elon Musk Declared NO LAUNCH Until...

Once again, Starship Flight 10 has been scrubbed for the 2nd time, this one just 40 seconds before liftoff.

What exactly went wrong, and when will the countdown pick up again?

Before the attempt, Elon Musk shared some surprising information about Starship during a livestream, and viewers were quick to notice the man sitting right next to him, so who was he?

Looking further ahead, just how much will the U.S. government depend on SpaceX in the future?

All of that and more, coming up in this episode of Alpha Tech.

Yeah, unlike the incident on the 24th, when Flight 10 was delayed because of a leaky fuel line in Ship’s QD system, this time the scrub had nothing to do with hardware at all. Starship Flight 10 was called off purely because of weather.

SpaceX posted: “Standing down from today’s flight test attempt due to weather. Starship team is determining the next best available opportunity to fly.”

Honestly, it wasn’t too surprising.

Texas weather has been all over the place lately with thunderstorms popping up everywhere.

Still, no one expected the storm to roll right over the launch site at the greatest moment.

Even SpaceX admitted before the attempt that conditions were only about 55% favorable for launch.

The biggest letdown?

The sunset that evening was absolutely stunning.

Everyone thought it would make the perfect backdrop for liftoff, but instead, the rocket stayed on the pad.

Elon Musk later explained that today’s scrub was because of heavy cloud cover and a potential lightning risk.

Which naturally raises the question: why is lightning such a big concern?

Don’t rockets usually come with lightning protection systems?

Actually, no, rockets don’t have dedicated lightning protection systems.

Most of the time, even if lightning strikes, the vehicle can still survive.

For example, a Russian Soyuz rocket was once hit by lightning just a few hundred meters after liftoff, yet it kept flying as if nothing had happened.

Even if SpaceX had gone ahead with the launch, it wouldn’t have been completely safe.

Starship is designed with electromagnetic protection (EMP) systems to help reduce the effects of lightning or electrical interference, but that’s just general shielding, not a dedicated lightning protection system.

In the end, safety still comes down to choosing the right launch window with favorable weather.

That’s why they scrubbed this attempt, safety comes first.