SpaceX has delayed the highly anticipated tenth test flight of its Starship rocket, calling off Sunday’s countdown less than half an hour before liftoff due to a ground systems issue.

The massive launch system, billed as the most powerful rocket ever built, was scheduled to lift off from Starbase, the company’s sprawling facility in Texas, at 6:30PM local time (9:30AM Monday AEST).

Instead, the company posted to X: “Standing down from today’s tenth flight of Starship to allow time to troubleshoot an issue with ground systems.”

No new launch date has been announced, though backup opportunities remain available in the coming days.

Flight 10 was set to be a critical demonstration. SpaceX planned to splash its Super Heavy booster in the Gulf of Mexico before guiding the Starship upper stage to a controlled landing in the Indian Ocean off Western Australia.

The mission was also expected to test orbital manoeuvres and deploy dummy payloads simulating Starlink satellites.

The delay comes amid a difficult year for SpaceX’s next-generation rocket.

Three Starship flights in 2025 have ended in explosions, while a June static-fire test destroyed another vehicle on the pad. Although SpaceX insists failures are part of its rapid-iteration philosophy, analysts say the pressure is building.

Despite setbacks, SpaceX is accelerating Starship production and expanding infrastructure in both Texas and Florida.

The company’s long-term plan is for Starship to replace the workhorse Falcon 9 and eventually ferry astronauts to the Moon and Mars.

NASA is relying on a modified version of Starship for its Artemis program, targeting a crewed lunar landing later this decade.