Musk will discuss progress and next steps toward building a human presence on the Red Planet ahead of Starship’s ninth test flight today.

The lost six months confirm that Elon Musk, SpaceX’s boss, will not be able to send uncrewed Starships to Mars next year, as he had claimed he intended to. The problems also cast serious doubt on the company’s ability to land an uncrewed Starship on the Moon next year as a precursor to delivering a crew there the year after as part of NASA ’s “Artemis” programme.