BROWNVILLE, Texas — SpaceX’s colossal Starship spacecraft experienced a dramatic explosion and fireball during testing in Texas late on Wednesday, representing the latest in a series of setbacks for billionaire Elon Musk’s ambitious Mars rocket program.
The incident occurred around 11 p.m. local time while the Starship was positioned on a test stand at its Brownsville, Texas Starbase, undergoing preparations for what would have been its tenth test flight.
SpaceX confirmed the event in a post on Elon Musk’s social-media platform X, attributing it to a “major anomaly” and assuring that all personnel remained safe.
The company indicated that its engineering teams have commenced an investigation into the incident and are coordinating with local, state, and federal agencies regarding potential environmental and safety impacts.
Elon Musk provided a preliminary explanation on X, stating: “Preliminary data suggests that a nitrogen COPV in the payload bay failed below its proof pressure.” He clarified this refers to a nitrogen gas storage unit known as a Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel.
Musk added: “If further investigation confirms that this is what happened, it is the first time ever for this design.”
Video footage capturing the moment of the explosion showed the Starship rocket appearing to experience at least two rapid successions of blasts, dramatically lighting up the night sky and scattering debris.
The 400-foot (122-meter) tall Starship rocket system is a cornerstone of Musk’s overarching goal to send humans to Mars. However, it has been plagued by a series of significant failures throughout this year.
In late May, a Starship rocket spun out of control approximately halfway through its flight, failing to achieve some of its crucial testing objectives. This flight had lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase, Texas, launch site, surpassing the trajectory of two earlier explosive attempts this year, which had sent debris streaking over Caribbean islands and necessitated flight diversions for dozens of airliners.
Just two months prior, the spacecraft had exploded in space mere minutes after lifting off from Texas, an event that prompted the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to temporarily halt air traffic in parts of Florida.
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Social media videos at the time depicted fiery debris streaking across the dusk skies near South Florida and the Bahamas after Starship disintegrated in space shortly after its engines cut off and it began to spin uncontrollably, as shown by a SpaceX live stream of the mission. At the time, Musk had characterized that explosion as “a minor setback.”
The FAA had announced earlier this month that it had concluded its agency-required investigation into the prior mishap, citing a probable cause of hardware failure in one of the engines. The FAA further confirmed that SpaceX had identified and implemented eight corrective actions to prevent a recurrence before the late May Starship mission.
In January, another Starship rocket had also broken up in space minutes after launching from Texas, resulting in debris raining down over Caribbean islands and causing minor damage to a car in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
