SpaceX\u2019s next Starship rocket exploded during a ground test in South Texas late Wednesday, dealing another blow to a program already struggling to overcome three consecutive failures in recent months.<\/p>\n
The late-night explosion at SpaceX\u2019s rocket development complex in Starbase, Texas, destroyed the bullet-shaped upper stage that was slated to launch on the next Starship test flight. The powerful blast set off fires around SpaceX\u2019s Massey\u2019s Test Site, located a few miles from the company\u2019s Starship factory and launch pads.<\/p>\n
Live streaming video from NASASpaceflight.com and LabPadre media organizations with cameras positioned around Starbase showed the 15-story-tall rocket burst into flames shortly after 11:00 pm local time (12:00 am EDT; 04:00 UTC). Local residents as far as 30 miles away reported seeing and feeling the blast.<\/p>\n
SpaceX confirmed the Starship, numbered Ship 36 in the company\u2019s inventory, \u201cexperienced a major anomaly\u201d on a test stand as the vehicle prepared to ignite its six Raptor engines for a static fire test. These hold-down test-firings are typically one of the final milestones in a Starship launch campaign before SpaceX moves the rocket to the launch pad.<\/p>\n
The explosion occurred as SpaceX finished loading super-cold methane and liquid oxygen propellants into Starship in preparation for the static fire test. The company said the area around the test site was evacuated of all personnel, and everyone was safe and accounted for after the incident. Firefighters from the Brownsville Fire Department were dispatched to the scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur Starbase team is actively working to safe the test site and the immediate surrounding area in conjunction with local officials,\u201d SpaceX posted on X. \u201cThere are no hazards to residents in surrounding communities, and we ask that individuals do not attempt to approach the area while safing operations continue.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a separate post on X, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk wrote that preliminary data suggests a high-pressure nitrogen tank failed inside Starship\u2019s payload bay. Many rockets have such tanks, or composite overwrapped pressure vessels, containing high-pressure gases used for purging and pressurizing different compartments inside the vehicle. These tanks, or COPVs, can be finicky. SpaceX engineers blamed hardware associated with COPVs for the only two catastrophic failures of the Falcon 9 rocket in 2015 and 2016.<\/p>\n
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Musk wrote that the nitrogen COPV appears to have failed below its proof pressure, within conditions that should not have damaged the tank. \u201cIf further investigation confirms that this is what happened, it is the first time ever for this design,\u201d Musk added.<\/p>\n
Earlier Wednesday, just hours before the late-night explosion at Starbase, an advisory released by the Federal Aviation Administration showed SpaceX had set June 29 as a tentative launch date for the next Starship test flight. That won\u2019t happen now, and it\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess when SpaceX will have another Starship ready to fly.<\/p>\n
Massey\u2019s Test Site, named for a gun range that once occupied the property, is situated on a bend in the Rio Grande River, just a few hundred feet from the Mexican border. The test site is currently the only place where SpaceX can put Starships through proof testing and static fire tests before declaring the rockets are ready to fly.<\/p>\n
The extent of the damage to ground equipment at Massey\u2019s was not immediately clear, so it\u2019s too soon to say how long the test site will be out of commission. For now, though, the explosion leaves SpaceX without a facility to support preflight testing on Starships.<\/p>\n
The videos embedded below, from NASASpaceflight.com and LabPadre, show multiple angles of the Starship blast.<\/p>\n