SpaceX has postponed the launch of its Starship rocket due to a ‘stage 1’ issue.

With less than 15 minutes to go, SpaceX CEO reported on Twitter that the team had discovered a frozen pressurant valve, resulting in the launch being postponed.

However, the team continued with the countdown until T minus 40 seconds, using the opportunity as a ‘wet dress rehearsal’ to continue running through the final preparation stages.

Due to the time required to empty the propellant and recycling of the fuel, it will be at least 48 hours before another launch attempt – provided they can quickly locate and fix the cause of the issue.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted: ‘Learned a lot today, now offloading propellant, retrying in a few days.’

Speaking on Twitter Spaces the night before the launch, Mr Musk warned that the mission had ‘a million ways to fail’. However, today’s postponement is more of a setback than a failure.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated

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