US strikes Iran for tenth straight night as Tehran hits Kuwait base; American death toll reaches 17Iranian missile hit US troop housing at Jordan base; Aqaba airport and port evacuatedHouthis declare Saudi naval blockade as fresh tanker attacks hit the Strait of HormuzBrent crude back above $90 as Gulf war rattles stocks, currencies and rate-settersTrump imposes 50% tariffs on Canadian goods under untested 1930 trade lawMerz signals cabinet reshuffle after Spahn quits as parliamentary leader over surrogacy rowBurnham takes office as UK prime minister, names Healey chancellor and calls TrumpRussia hits Kyiv with one of the war's largest ballistic barragesUkrainian drones and sea drones strike Russian oil terminals, power grid and Black Sea shipsFerry with about 133 aboard capsizes off Guyana; dozens missingAt least 50 Malian soldiers killed in jihadist–separatist ambush near AnefisChina uses WAIC to press its claim to lead 'global AI governance'Heatwave fuels major wildfires in Spain and Greece; nearly 50,000 hectares burnedUS strikes Iran for tenth straight night as Tehran hits Kuwait base; American death toll reaches 17Iranian missile hit US troop housing at Jordan base; Aqaba airport and port evacuatedHouthis declare Saudi naval blockade as fresh tanker attacks hit the Strait of HormuzBrent crude back above $90 as Gulf war rattles stocks, currencies and rate-settersTrump imposes 50% tariffs on Canadian goods under untested 1930 trade lawMerz signals cabinet reshuffle after Spahn quits as parliamentary leader over surrogacy rowBurnham takes office as UK prime minister, names Healey chancellor and calls TrumpRussia hits Kyiv with one of the war's largest ballistic barragesUkrainian drones and sea drones strike Russian oil terminals, power grid and Black Sea shipsFerry with about 133 aboard capsizes off Guyana; dozens missingAt least 50 Malian soldiers killed in jihadist–separatist ambush near AnefisChina uses WAIC to press its claim to lead 'global AI governance'Heatwave fuels major wildfires in Spain and Greece; nearly 50,000 hectares burned
Bota
← All topics

Narrative thread · 1 event

SpaceX Starship

Symbolic image

SpaceX's Starship, at around 124 meters tall, is the largest and most powerful rocket system ever built and flown, its first stage (Super Heavy) powered by 33 engines. The rocket is developed, built and tested at the company's own Starbase site in Boca Chica at the southern tip of Texas near the Mexican border. The program has been marked by test flights with failures and partial successes: on the first test flight in April 2023 the launch pad exploded and the rocket broke apart in the air, while on a later flight the returning first stage was for the first time caught by the launch tower's grappling arms. With Starship, SpaceX aims to transport people and cargo to the Moon and Mars and to deliver satellites such as the Starlink units into space.

Space.comFAA: SpaceX Starship Super Heavy Project

Timeline in detail

Friday, 17 July 2026Technology

SpaceX aborts Starship test flight at the last second

SpaceX automatically aborted the 13th test flight of its Starship rocket in Texas shortly before liftoff. According to Elon Musk, several engines failed to ignite. It would have been the first flight since the company's IPO, and the first meant to carry a payload into space.

According to reports by AP and Reuters, the system automatically halted the launch in the final seconds of the countdown. The FAZ and Die Zeit describe that it would have been the first Starship test flight since SpaceX's IPO, and that Elon Musk cited the failure of several engines to ignite as the cause. Die Welt describes the disappointment after a guaranteed spectacle had been announced, when the giant rocket simply stood still at the countdown's zero. The reports agree on the sequence of events; the details on payload and IPO rest on today's coverage. For SpaceX, an aborted launch is part of the iterative test program that has long been marked by failures and partial successes, though public pressure has risen since the IPO.

FAZDie ZeitAssociated PressReuters