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Scrub, Fix, Relaunch: Starship V3's Do-or-Die May 22 Attempt
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
A hydraulic pin failure scrubbed Starship V3's debut, but SpaceX is back on the pad for a May 22 relaunch with billions in IPO money, NASA's Moon mission, and Mars ambitions all riding on one test flight. Find out what to watch, what can still go wrong, and why this launch matters far beyond the spectacle.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
A hydraulic pin on SpaceX's launch tower failed to retract yesterday, and that single mechanical failure scrubbed the most consequential rocket test in years. Flight Twelve, the debut of Starship V3, was aborted on May twenty-first after a cascade of issues hit the pad.
Starship V3 is four hundred and seven feet tall and produces eighteen million pounds of thrust. It's designed to refuel in orbit, which is the capability that unlocks lunar and Mars missions with payloads exceeding one hundred metric tons.
The timing here matters in a second way. SpaceX recently filed its IPO prospectus, and the numbers inside it tell a clear story.
There's a third pressure layer sitting behind the IPO. NASA's Artemis program is targeting a crewed lunar landing by twenty twenty-eight, and Starship is the designated lunar lander.
The signal to watch on May twenty-second isn't just whether the rocket lifts off. The hydraulic pin fix is the first test.
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