SpaceX is gearing up for the next test flight of its Starship megarocket on Monday after a technical issue on the launchpad forced a 24-hour delay.

The tenth trial comes at a time of heightened scrutiny for the world's most powerful launch vehicle -- central to founder Elon Musk's dream of colonizing Mars and NASA's plan to return astronauts to the Moon -- following a string of explosive failures that have begun raising doubts about its viability.

Standing 403 feet (123 meters) tall, the stainless-steel behemoth is scheduled to lift off from the company's Starbase in southern Texas at 6:30 pm local time (2330 GMT).

Sunday's attempt was scrubbed because of a ground-system leak, a relatively routine issue in spaceflight and not generally cause for concern.

The mission aims to put the upp

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