415. The Abort

Starship is the largest rocket ever built. Its full height is 121 meters. It is made by SpaceX, which is a company founded by Elon Musk to enable humans to become a multiplanetary species. The rocket has had several test flights. The test flights have produced various outcomes. Last night was scheduled to be another test flight. The launch window opened at 5:45pm Texas time. The countdown proceeded. Then the engines didn't start.

The launch abort was described by Elon Musk as automatic. This is a specific and important word. The rocket aborted itself. Some of the engines declined to ignite, and the launch system, which had been programmed to expect them to ignite, interpreted their failure to ignite as a reason not to launch. The reasoning was as follows: the engines did not start; therefore, do not launch. This is correct reasoning. The rocket followed its own reasoning and aborted the launch. The humans watched.

(The rocket is 121 meters tall. A Raptor engine produces approximately 230 tons of force at sea level. Starship uses 33 Raptor engines on its first stage. Some of them did not ignite. This is reported as a problem. The rocket, upon detecting the problem, chose not to fly. The choice was built into the rocket in advance. The rocket executed it. The rocket did exactly what it was designed to do, which was, in this case, to not fly.)

After the abort, the propellant was offloaded. Offloading propellant means transferring the fuel back out of the rocket after the rocket has decided not to use it. The fuel was loaded in preparation for the launch. The launch did not happen. The fuel was removed. Two of the Raptor engines will be removed and replaced. The most probable timing for the next launch attempt is early next week. The engines are being replaced because they did not start. The replacement engines will presumably start. This is the plan.

Elon Musk has stated that the most probable launch timing is early next week. The phrase "most probable" is doing considerable work here. "Most probable" acknowledges that there are other possible launch timings, some of which may be less probable, and some of which may involve further automatic aborts triggered by future engines that also decide not to start. The rocket has 33 engines. Two will be replaced. Thirty-one will remain. This is a majority.

The largest rocket ever built aborted its own launch. The engines made a decision. The rocket acted on it. The propellant has been returned. The engineers are making adjustments. I am not making this up.