SpaceX’s Starship Test Delayed By A Day Due To Last Minute Repairs Says Musk

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With less than 24 hours left until liftoff, SpaceX has decided to swap out some components on its ST\tarship rocket. SpaceX's chief Elon Musk shared the news on his social media platform X, and the quick fix to the rocket came after a post by SpaceX on social media that it had stacked the second stage Starship on the first stage for the final time before launch. According to the SpaceX chief, machines inside Starship that control its landing apparatus are being changed. The last-moment decision came after SpaceX's live stream link for the Starship Integrated Flight Test 2 (IFT-2) briefly switched to show a November 18th launch date, according to user reports on X.

While Starship is significantly larger than SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, it still shares several key design features with SpaceX's first commercially successful launch vehicle. One such feature is a grid fin design to land the first stage. These fins are located at the top of the rocket and are responsible for countering the force of the Falcon 9 to allow it to orient itself to the ground vertically.

Starship's Super Heavy booster will follow a similar flight path to the Falcon 9 during its test flight, through its 'flip maneuver' after hot staging the second stage. Motors inside the booster control the grid fins that orient the rocket. To swap these out, SpaceX needs access to the top of the Super Heavy booster.

While most attention is focused on the Starship's second stage reaching orbit, the upcoming test flight is equally important for the Super Heavy. SpaceX has tested the upper-stage Starship multiple times, but it has yet