Overview
- Nicki Minaj made a surprise on‑camera appearance during the SpaceX Starship Flight 12 webcast on Thursday and told Elon Musk, “Major shoutout to Elon. Thank you for everything that you’re doing for humanity.”
- The launch was called off when, Elon Musk said on X, the hydraulic pin holding the tower arm did not retract and engineers postponed the attempt with a planned reattempt the following day.
- The clip of Minaj in a Starship T‑shirt went viral and quickly shifted attention from the technical test to discussion of her growing public ties to President Donald Trump and conservative figures.
- Flight 12 was to test a redesigned Starship V3 at SpaceX’s Starbase site in Texas, and the scrub underscores the common engineering risks in iterative rocket testing where last‑minute hardware holds can stop a launch.
- The episode could change public perception of both Minaj and SpaceX as the company continues hard testing, filed an IPO prospectus this week, and prepares for another launch attempt.