SpaceX’s massive Starship spacecraft exploded into a dramatic fireball during testing late on Wednesday Texas time, the latest in a series of setbacks for billionaire Elon Musk’s Mars rocket programme.
The explosion occurred around 11pm local time (Thursday, 6am SAST) while Starship was on a test stand at its Brownsville, Texas Starbase while preparing for the 10th test flight, SpaceX said in a post on Musk’s social media platform X.
The company attributed it to a “major anomaly” and said all personnel were safe.
“Preliminary data suggests that a nitrogen COPV in the payload bay failed below its proof pressure,” Musk said in a post on X, in a reference to a nitrogen gas storage unit known as a Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel.
“If further investigation confirms that this is what happened, it is the first time ever for this design,” he continued.
SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for further comment. — Jaspreet Singh and Cassel Bryan-Low, (c) 2025 Reuters
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