Bad weather on Monday forced SpaceX to postpone the latest launch of its massive prototype Starship rocket, key to founder Elon Musk's dreams of colonizing Mars and NASA's plans to return astronauts to the Moon.

The tenth test flight, which could now happen as soon as Tuesday, comes at a time of heightened scrutiny for the world's most powerful launch vehicle following a string of explosive failures that have begun raising doubts about its viability.

Standing 403 feet (123 meters) tall, the stainless steel behemoth was set to lift off from the company's Starbase in southern Texas in a window that opened at 6:30 pm local time (2330 GMT).

It was the second delay in two days after a ground-system leak, a relatively routine issue in spaceflight, scuppered an attempt on Sunday.

The mission

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