A SpaceX Starship exploded at the company’s Starbase launch site in Texas Wednesday night, bursting into a massive fireball. Video shows the explosion, which SpaceX said occurred as the Starship was preparing for an engine test firing.
The Starship “experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase,” the company said in a post on X.
“A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for,” SpaceX said.
The company said there are no hazards to residents in surrounding communities and asked that people avoid the area “while safing operations continue.”
Video from LabPadre, the company that monitors SpaceX activities at Starbase, appears to show two major explosions — the first near the rocket’s nose, and the second on the left side of the spacecraft. The Starship was being filled with liquid oxygen and high-energy methane fuel at the time the detonations happened.
The explosion may have been triggered by the rupture of a high-pressure nitrogen tank, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Thursday.
Starship is comprised of a spacecraft and a Super Heavy rocket that together are intended to be a reusable system that can carry cargo and crew to the moon and Mars. NASA is counting on the giant rocket to launch astronauts on a mission to land near the lunar south pole in the next two or three years.
SpaceX has launched nine Super Heavy-Starship test flights over the last two years, with the first three ending with explosions or breakups and the next three being partially successful. The next two resulted in explosions and the most recent flight, in May, reached its trajectory but broke up during atmospheric entry after spinning out of control.
Known as Ship 36, SpaceX was planning to launch the Starship around the end of this month on a huge Super Heavy booster, in what would have been the rocket’s 10th test fight.
William Harwood
contributed to this report.
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