SpaceX aborts several Starship static fire attempts, rolls test tank to the pad - Teslarati

Accidentally producing the polar opposite of Starship serial number 9 (SN9) completing a trio of Raptor ignition tests in four hours last week, SpaceX has now suffered three back-to-back static fire aborts on January 20th.

Finally, on the 20th, SpaceX kicked off Starship SN9’s first real test attempt since the engine swap around 2pm but it was aborted by 3pm.

After an extremely brisk recycle, Starship likely made it less than a minute away from ignition but the second attempt was ultimately aborted around 3:40 pm.

Two hours later, after SpaceX extended the end of its road closure from 5pm to 8pm, Starship SN9’s third Raptor static fire attempt was also aborted – once again just a minute or less away from ignition.

Another abort for Starship SN9 during the Static Fire attempt.

More likely than not, SpaceX is leaning towards caution (and thus cautious hardware and software limits) while attempting to prepare Starship SN9 for its true data-gathering purpose – an SN8-style high-altitude launch and landing attempt.

Meanwhile, prior to SN9’s multiple Wednesday aborts, SpaceX rolled the latest in a series of Starship ‘test tanks’ from the factory to the launch pad.