American spacecraft firm SpaceX has called off the launch of a its towering Starship rocket on April 17 due to a technical glitch.
The confirmation from the company came shortly after its chief Elon Musk said the launch attempt would not be possible as a "pressurant valve appears to be frozen".
"Learned a lot today, now offloading propellant, retrying in a few days," Musk tweeted, after the first launch attempt was called off.
SpaceX had planned to fly the nearly 400-foot Starship rocket from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border.
The countdown was halted at the 40-second mark because of a stuck valve in the first-stage booster. Launch controllers couldn’t fix the frozen valve in time, and canceled the attempt. The countdown continued, and fueling was completed, as a dress rehearsal.
No people or satellites were aboard. There won’t be another try until at least April 19, the Associated Press reported.
The company plans to use Starship to send people and cargo to the moon and, ultimately, Mars.
On the eve of the launch attempt, cars, campers, RVs and even bicycles and horses jammed the only road leading to the launch pad, where the stainless steel rocket towered above the flat scrubland and prairie. Enthusiasts posed in front of the giant letters that spelled out Starbase at the entrance of the SpaceX complex, and in front of the rocket two miles farther down the road, which ended at the gulf.
On Monday, spectators were barred from the area, and instead packed a beach about six miles away on South Padre Island.
Ernesto and Maria Carreon drove two hours from Mission, Texas, with their two daughters, 5 and 7, to watch.
“I got sad. They got sad,” when the launch attempt was canceled, Maria Carreon said.
Michelle Vancampenhout, on vacation from Green Bay, Wisconsin, said she'll be back. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience to see it,” she said.
With AP inputs
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