A critical test of the SpaceX Starship Flight Ten from Texas has been delayed because of what the company calls an "issue with ground systems."
The liftoff was planned for some period after 6:30 pm Texas time, depending on weather conditions, but was cancelled just before the launch window opened because of the technical issues.
In a post on X, SpaceX wrote "Standing down from today's tenth flight of Starship to allow time to troubleshoot an issue with ground systems," at about 6:13 p.m. Central Daylight Time on Sunday.
The test would have been critical because the giant rocket -- the largest and most powerful ever produced -- has had nine tests so far, three of them this year, and all three this year have had serious problems.
Flights 7 & 8 exploded not long after launch, and Flight 9 fell apart when re-entering Earth's atmosphere during its test.
The Starship is evolving as engineers become more familiar with the challenges they're facing, with hope it can someday land on the Moon and start bringing people to Mars, but there are significant challenges ahead.
A new date for the launch has not been set, but the SpaceX calendar indicates there could be a new test launch as early as this week.