SpaceX Starship rocket explodes in latest setback to Musk's Mars mission
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.
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 spun out of control about halfway through a flight without achieving some of its most important testing goals.
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 earlier, the spacecraft exploded in space minutes after lifting off from Texas, prompting the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to halt air traffic in parts 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.
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 broke up in space minutes after launching from Texas, raining debris over Caribbean islands and causing minor damage to a car in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Reuters
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