Ace Breaking News – In short: SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft has exploded in a fireball during testing
SpaceX Starship rocket explodes in the latest setback to Musk’s Mars mission
The company attributed it to a “major anomaly”, and said all personnel were safe.
It is the latest in a series of setbacks for billionaire Elon Musk’s Mars rocket program.
SpaceX’s massive Starship spacecraft has exploded in a dramatic fireball during testing in Texas.
It is the latest in a series of setbacks for billionaire Elon Musk’s Mars rocket program.
The explosion occurred about 11pm local time while Starship was on a test stand at its Brownsville, Texas Starbase.
The spacecraft was preparing for its 10th test flight, SpaceX said in a post on Mr Musk’s social media platform X.
The company attributed it to a “major anomaly”, and said all personnel were safe.
Mr Musk said preliminary data suggested a nitrogen gas storage unit, known as a “composite overwrapped pressure vessel,” had “failed below its proof pressure.”
“If further investigation confirms that this is what happened, it is the first time ever for this design,” he said in a post on X.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for further comment from Reuters.
The Starship rocket appeared to experience at least two explosions in quick succession, lighting up the night sky and sending debris flying.
Rocket system faces string of failures
The 122-metre rocket system is at the core of Mr Musk’s goal to send humans to Mars, but it has been beset by a string of failures this year.
In late May, SpaceX's Starship rocket experienced a severe malfunction during its flight, ultimately spinning out of control. This incident hindered the rocket from reaching several key testing objectives essential for its development.
The Starship lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase launch site, flying beyond the point of two previous explosive attempts this year that sent debris streaking over Caribbean islands and forced dozens of airliners to divert course.
Two months ago, a spacecraft exploded in space shortly after taking off from Texas. This incident prompted the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to temporarily suspend air traffic in certain regions of Florida.
Videos on social media showed fiery debris streaking through the dusk skies near south Florida and the Bahamas after Starship broke up in space shortly after it began to spin uncontrollably with its engines cut off, a SpaceX live stream of the mission showed.
Mr Musk said the explosion was “a minor setback”.
The FAA said this month it had closed an agency-required investigation into the mishap, citing a hardware failure in one of the engines as the probable cause.
Debris streaks through the sky in Hog Cay, Bahamas. (Reuters: )normal
SpaceX identified eight corrective actions to prevent a recurrence and the FAA said it verified SpaceX implemented those prior to the late May Starship mission.
In January, a starship rocket disintegrated in space minutes after launching from Texas, scattering debris over Caribbean islands and causing minor damage to a car in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
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