SpaceX Pushes Back Crucial Starship Test Launch -- WSJ

Dow Jones04-05

By Micah Maidenberg

SpaceX delayed the next test flight of its massive Starship rocket, pushing off the highly anticipated mission by at least another month.

SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said Friday the next launch attempt for the roughly 400-foot rocket would occur sometime in early to mid-May. In January, Musk said the new version of Starship would launch in early March, and he later pushed the date to around April 7.

Touted for years by Musk as the key to taking humans to Mars, SpaceX is now looking to show that Starship can work, including by lofting the company's own satellites into orbit. It is developing the rocket as the company prepares for a highly anticipated public offering that bankers believe will make SpaceX one of the most valuable companies in the world.

Rocket development is always a difficult endeavor, with margins between success and fiery failures relatively thin. SpaceX's Starship is designed to be the most powerful rocket ever built, consisting of a booster that propels a large spacecraft into space. Both are intended to be rapidly and fully reusable.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is also looking to have a version of Starship ready for 2028, when the U.S. space agency plans to use the vehicle to land astronauts on the lunar surface for the first time in over 50 years.

Some current and former spaceflight officials are skeptical that the Starship lander will be ready for that operation, given the amount of development work ahead and the relatively tight time frame. SpaceX has said it offered the agency ideas to simplify the planned landing operation.

Texas-based SpaceX has conducted 11 flight tests of Starship over the last three years, but the next one is expected to be one of the most important to date.

The version of the rocket SpaceX plans to put through its paces on the next flight features numerous upgrades and engineering changes. Those include a redesigned propellant system on its booster and improved Raptor engines.

Write to Micah Maidenberg at micah.maidenberg@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 04, 2026 15:25 ET (19:25 GMT)

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SpaceX Pushes Back Crucial Starship Test Launch -- WSJ

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