A SpaceX Starship rocket exploded on a take a look at stand in Texas, including to a collection of setbacks to Elon Musk’s house ambitions that embody journeys to Mars.
The large blast enveloped the craft because it stood upright on a take a look at stand, earlier than large plumes of flames and smoke mushroomed into the evening sky, video footage of the incident late Wednesday confirmed. The incident shook home windows and rattled dishes, based on native media stories.
The rocket seemed to be present process a routine “static hearth take a look at” of its engines. A static hearth take a look at is a pre-launch process wherein a rocket’s engines are fired whereas the rocket stays securely held down on the bottom — basically a rehearsal for the actual launch, permitting engineers to check the rocket’s methods with out really sending it into house.
Musk mentioned on X {that a} specialised bottle that holds nitrogen doubtless failed.
“If additional investigation confirms that that is what occurred, it’s the first time ever for this design,” he mentioned.
Nobody was injured and native residents aren’t in danger, the corporate mentioned, calling the incident “a significant anomaly” because the rocket program ready for its tenth flight take a look at.
On Wednesday, June 18 at roughly 11 p.m. CT, the Starship getting ready for the tenth flight take a look at skilled a significant anomaly whereas on a take a look at stand at Starbase. A security clear space across the web site was maintained all through the operation and all personnel are protected and accounted…
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 19, 2025
The obvious destruction of the rocket extends the string of mishaps for a spaceship program that’s central to NASA’s plans to place American boots again on the moon — and in addition to Musk’s grander ambitions to ship cargo and folks to Mars. The incident comes at a second when Musk’s enterprise empire is faces falling demand for Tesla Inc.’s electrical autos, and after Musk engaged in a public feud with President Donald Trump.
Musk’s firm holds contracts with NASA value round $4 billion to land the company’s astronauts on the moon utilizing Starship, the world’s largest and strongest launch system.
SpaceX has skilled Starship mishaps throughout floor testing earlier than. The earliest Starship prototypes both collapsed or exploded throughout propellant assessments on the bottom, effectively earlier than the corporate started conducting routine take a look at flights with the car. Nevertheless, Wednesday’s explosion marked the primary Starship failure in years throughout a floor take a look at.
The corporate has additionally suffered explosive occasions forward of static hearth testing earlier than. In 2016, one of many firm’s Falcon 9 rockets exploded because it was being loaded with propellant, a uncommon failure for a rocket that now boasts a greater than 99% mission success price.
SpaceX is quickly constructing and testing new Starship prototypes at its Starbase take a look at web site in South Texas, which means the corporate can in all probability slot in one other craft comparatively quickly for the subsequent mission. SpaceX additionally follows a take a look at flight routine that entails pushing autos till they break to find out how they’ll fail, lessening the lack of anyone car.
Nevertheless, it’s one other failure after a string of in-flight setbacks, making it unclear when SpaceX will begin attaining lots of the milestones it wants to fulfill to unlock the guarantees Musk has made for Starship’s future.
Final month, SpaceX’s colossal Starship disintegrated mid-flight after spinning uncontrolled. That loss was its third consecutive setback after flights in January and March have been reduce quick simply minutes after takeoff when the spacecraft exploded over the Gulf of Mexico, sending particles raining down from the sky and disrupting air journey.
January’s explosion was brought on by a propellant leak whereas the March failure was triggered by a {hardware} drawback with considered one of Starship’s Raptor engines, based on SpaceX.
Starship 10 hadn’t been assigned an official launch date, and it’s now unclear when the subsequent flight will happen. Following the failure of the ninth launch, SpaceX mentioned it could perform an information assessment and make enhancements to the rocket system earlier than the subsequent take a look at.
Except for the failures, SpaceX celebrated some key achievements final 12 months when Starship’s booster was first caught on the launchpad utilizing massive mechanical arms, known as “chopsticks.” Designed to be reusable, Starship is supposed to function the first spacecraft for carrying people to Mars after which bringing them again to Earth.
Musk has mentioned he plans to ship a Starship rocket to the Purple Planet carrying robots constructed by Tesla as early as 2026.
Because the world’s richest individual steps again from his political work in Washington to refocus on his enterprise empire, it stays unclear how a lot time he’ll spend on Starship and SpaceX, and what adjustments he’ll make inside the corporate to get this system again on monitor.
Copyright 2025 Bloomberg.
Subjects
Aerospace
Interested by Aerospace?
Get automated alerts for this subject.
