SpaceX Starship Explodes in Texas Test, Marking Fourth Failure This Year

SpaceX’s latest Starship prototype, designated Ship 36, exploded late Wednesday during a static-fire engine test at the company’s Starbase facility near Brownsville, Texas, sending a large fireball into the night sky. Local authorities said no injuries occurred.

The blast took place at about 11:01 p.m. Central Time as engineers prepared the vehicle for its 10th integrated flight. SpaceX said the rocket “experienced a major anomaly” while secured to its test stand and had cleared the site of personnel before the incident.

Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk posted that early data point to the rupture of a high-pressure nitrogen Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel in the payload bay—an issue he described as unprecedented for this design. SpaceX engineers are investigating alongside local, state and federal agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration, to determine the root cause and evaluate any environmental effects.

The failure is at least the fourth Starship setback this year and follows a May test in which another vehicle disintegrated during re-entry. Repeated mishaps threaten to tighten the development schedule for the 122-metre-tall, fully reusable system that NASA is counting on to land astronauts on the Moon as early as 2027 and that underpins Musk’s longer-term goal of transporting people to Mars.

Starship is built to haul up to 150 metric tons to orbit and return for rapid reuse, a cornerstone of SpaceX’s cost-reduction strategy. Wednesday’s explosion underscores the technical hurdles that remain before the world’s most powerful rocket can move from experimental flights to routine operations.