INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
SpaceX's 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.The late-night explosion at SpaceX's 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's Massey's Test Site, located a few miles from the company's Starship factory and launch
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.SpaceX confirmed the Starship, numbered Ship 36 in the
company's inventory, "experienced a major anomaly" on a test stand as the vehicle prepared to ignite its six Raptor engines for a static
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.The explosion occurred as SpaceX finished up 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."Our Starbase team is actively working to safe the test site
and the immediate surrounding area in conjunction with local officials," SpaceX posted on X
"There are no hazards to residents in surrounding communities, and we ask that individuals do not attempt to approach the area while safing
operations continue."In a separate post on X, SpaceX's founder and CEO, Elon Musk, wrote that preliminary data suggests a high-pressure
nitrogen tank failed inside Starship's 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.
