The second flight test of Starship, the most powerful and largest rocket ever built, destined for future missions to the Moon and also to Mars, has been postponed to tomorrow. This was communicated by the founder of SpaceX with an announcement on X explaining that it is necessary to replace one of the fins that allow the rocket to maneuver during the descent to Earth.
"We need to replace a grid actuator, so the launch is postponed until Saturday," Elon Musk wrote on X. The rocket, the most powerful ever made, was supposed to do its second flight test today at 14 p.m. Italian time starting from SpaceX's base in Boca Chica, South Texas, but it was postponed by 24 hours, to tomorrow, November 18 at 14 p.m. Italian time, with a launch window of about 20 minutes. The test involves the liftoff of the rocket and then the controlled re-entry of the first stage, the booster, while the upper stage, the Starship spacecraft, should reach space and almost complete an orbit of the planet and then land in the sea off Hawaii. The new test follows the first one in April that ended with the explosion of the rocket, in the phase of separation between the first and second stages, and also extensive damage to the launch pad. A failure taken into account by SpaceX's top management that has made it possible to understand many critical issues of the system and make improvements that will be put to the test in the new test.
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