WASHINGTON, July 16 (Reuters) - SpaceX's Starship rocket triggered a last-second abort before liftoff for its 13th flight test from Texas on Thursday, postponing the mission by at least 24 hours with the company studying what likely caused the automated scrub.

"We did trigger a hold on the booster that aborted our liftoff as we were starting to light those Raptor engines," said SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot, speaking on the company's live stream. "We'll take some time, dig into what triggered that abort once the booster was igniting to launch, and then we'll figure out what our path forward is going to be."

The launch abort came less than a second before Starship's planned 6:45 p.m. ET liftoff from Starbase, SpaceX's company town in south Texas. The rocket's engines ignited but cut off shortly after.

(Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Chris Reese)