Elon Musk's SpaceX has postponed a launch of its massive Starship rocket and said it plans to make another attempt at the highly anticipated test flight on Friday.

It comes just a day after the firm revealed plans for a record-breaking stock market debut, in which the successful launch of the powerful new rocket could help entice investors to buy shares.

The initial public offering (IPO) on the tech-heavy Nasdaq stock market is set to be the largest in Wall Street history and could start next month under the ticker symbol SPCX.

Because of the shares he will own in SpaceX, the listing could make Musk, who is already the world's richest person, the first-ever trillionaire.

Musk said on social media that the delay was caused by a malfunctioning hydraulic pin on part of the launch tower.

"If that can be fixed tonight, there will be another launch attempt tomorrow at 5:30 CT [22:30 GMT]," he added.

SpaceX makes rockets, offers a satellite internet service called Starlink, and also owns the controversial artificial intelligence (AI) firm xAI.

The uncrewed launch will mark the debut of the Starship V3 rocket after months of testing delays.

SpaceX described it as "the most powerful launch system ever developed" in its IPO filing.

"We expect that Starship V3 will be able to carry a payload of 100 metric tons, with future generations of Starship being designed to double this payload," it added.

It features dozens of upgrades designed for rapid launches of the firm's Starlink satellites and Nasa missions to the moon.

SpaceX has spent more than $15bn (£11.2bn) on the Starship programme, according to the filing.

SpaceX values itself at $1.25tn, and Musk's majority ownership of the company means his share could be worth more than $600bn.

Last year, Musk, who is also the chief executive of electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla, became the first person to achieve a net worth of more than $500bn.

Last year, Space Exploration Technologies - as it is officially known - brought in $18.6bn in revenue but had a net loss $4.9bn.

In the first three months of this year, it achieved $4.7bn in sales but made a net loss of $4.3bn.

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Elon Musk's SpaceX delays Starship launch

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