Elon Musk’s SpaceX Postpones Starship Launch

Less than 24 hours before SpaceX's Starship was set for a much-anticipated launch, CEO Elon Musk announced another delay to the takeoff.

SpaceX must replace a part on the vessel, forcing its launch to Saturday at the earliest, Musk wrote on X. SpaceX had hoped to stage its launch Friday morning.

The errant part is a grid fin actuator, a small piece of a mechanism that helps steer the spacecraft as it ascends — and, hopefully, returns to Earth. Grid fins act as a crucial component in SpaceX's reusable rockets, helping them touch down softly and enabling them to relaunch again.

Starship is now scheduled to launch no earlier than 7 a.m. Central time on Saturday, and SpaceX will stream the launch live on its site.

This is the company's second attempt to launch the spacecraft. The first try in April ended in an explosion that destroyed the rocket and ruined its launch pad.