Update June 19, 10:51 p.m. EDT: Adding statements from SpaceX and Elon Musk.
SpaceX’s next Starship vehicle was destroyed in a catastrophic explosion shortly after 11 p.m. CT (0400 UTC) Wednesday as it was being readied for a static fire test at the company’s Massey facility, near Starbase, Texas.
The bullet-shaped, stainless-steel Ship 36 was ripped apart in a giant fireball as liquid methane and liquid oxygen were being loaded for an expected test firing of the vehicle’s six Raptor rocket engines. It was unclear how much damage was inflicted to the test stand and other facilities at the Massey site.
“The Starship preparing for the tenth flight test experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase,” SpaceX said in a social media post. “A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for. Our Starbase team is actively working to safe the test site and the immediate surrounding area in conjunction with local officials.”
SpaceX said there were no hazards to residents in nearby communities but urged people to stay away while it worked to safe the test site.
Later in the day, the company issued another statement, this time to its website, where it said the preliminary analysis indicated “the potential failure of a pressurized tank known as COPV, or composite overwrapped pressure vessel, containing gaseous nitrogen in Starship’s nosecone area, but the full data review is ongoing.”
“There is no commonality between the COPVs used on Starship and SpaceX’s Falcon rockets,” SpaceX said.
SpaceX Founder Elon Musk posted similar comments to his account on X, adding that, “If further investigation confirms this is what happened, it is the first time ever for this design.”
Airspace warnings, issued by the Federal Aviation Administration prior to Wednesday’s failure, suggested SpaceX was targeting June 29 for the tenth test flight of the full Starship vehicle with its Super Heavy Booster first stage.
SpaceX had performed a single-engine test fire for Ship 36 on June 16 and fired up the 33 Raptor engines of the Super Heavy Booster for the mission on June 6.
The dramatic failure follows three unsuccessful test flights of the Starship upper stage earlier this year. Flights 7 and 8 both ended with an explosion of the Ship upper stage during the climb to space. After a successful ascent on Flight 9 on May 27, the Starship upper stage suffered a loss of attitude control and was destroyed during reentry without accomplishing most of the planned in-space test activities.
Starship plays a vital role in NASA’s Artemis program to return humans to the Moon. The Human Landing System variant of Starship is supposed to ferry astronauts to the lunar surface on the Artemis 3 mission, currently scheduled for 2027.
Musk has touted Starship for the colonization of Mars, and in a recent presentation, he suggested the craft could make multiple flights to the Red Planet as soon as 2026.