SpaceX scrubs 8th Starship flight test. Here's what happens next

SpaceX had high hopes of conducting the eighth flight test of its Starship spacecraft from Texas on Monday, but ultimately scrubbed the mission at T-40 seconds after various last-minute issues popped up. The scheduled test flight came a month after its seventh test flight experienced some issues – and subsequently exploded. 

"Standing down from today's flight test attempt," SpaceX said in a X post at 6:54 p.m. " "Starship team is determining the next best available opportunity to fly."

In a statement on its website ahead of Monday's test flight, SpaceX said it made "several hardware and operational changes changes" to increase reliability of the upper stage rocket," following January's test flight.

Starship test flight scrubbed. When will the next one be?

SpaceX said the Starship team would determine when the next launch window was.

In the livestream broadcast, SpaceX's Starship team said it could happen as early as 24 hours, but would depend on the investigation into the issues – presumed fixes – during Monday's test flight.

What will happen during this flight test?

"During the flight test, Starship will deploy four Starlink simulators, similar in size to next-generation Starlink satellites, as the first exercise of a satellite deploy mission. The Starlink simulators will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship and are expected to demise upon entry. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned," SpaceX said on its website.

What is the Starship?

Space's Starship is made up of several components – the spacecraft and the Super Heavy rocket. The goal is to be able to send astronauts and cargo from Earth to the Moon, Mars, "and beyond," according to SpaceX's website. It's designed to be a fully reusable system. SpaceX has reused several boosters, part of its Starlink launches.

According to SpaceX's website, the hope is for Starship to carry up to 100 people on "long-duration, interplanetary flights." 

What happened during the 7th flight test?

According to SpaceX, the Starship spacecraft and rocket lifted off at 4:37 p.m. Central Standard Time (5:37 p.m. Eastern Standard Time) from Texas. The Super Heavy rocket was successfully caught, SpaceX said, marking its second-ever catch, SpaceX said.

After the Starship spacecraft separated from the Super Heavy booster, flashes were observed in the rear of the vehicles, near the engines. There was one flash about two minutes after separation, SpaceX said, and a second flash two minutes after that, as well as "sustained fires."

Starship stopped communicating with teams on the ground roughly 8 minutes and 20 seconds into the flight, SpaceX said. Three minutes after that, the spacecraft appeared to break apart and explode across the sky over Turks and Caicos.

"Post-flight analysis indicates that the safety system did trigger autonomously, and breakup occurred within Flight Termination System expectations," SpaceX said.

"The most probable root cause for the loss of ship was identified as a harmonic response several times stronger in flight than had been seen during testing, which led to increased stress on hardware in the propulsion system. The subsequent propellant leaks exceeded the venting capability of the ship’s attic area and resulted in sustained fires."

SpaceX said the debris fell within a "pre-planned Debris Response Area," and that its teams immediately coordinated with the governments of Turks and Cacos and the United Kingdom "to coordinate recovery and cleanup efforts."