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SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft exploded in a massive fireball during a test late Wednesday, June 18, dealing another blow to Elon Musk’s ambitious plan to send humans to Mars.
The incident occurred around 11 p.m. local time at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Brownsville, Texas, where the vehicle was being prepared for its tenth test flight. The company confirmed the explosion in a post on X (formerly Twitter), describing it as a “major anomaly” and assuring the public that all personnel were safe.
Elon Musk later stated that preliminary data pointed to a failure in a nitrogen storage unit known as a Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel (COPV) located in the payload bay. “If confirmed, this would be the first failure of its kind for this design,” Musk noted.
Videos circulating online captured at least two rapid explosions that lit up the night sky and sent debris flying.
Standing at 400 feet (122 meters), Starship is central to Musk’s long-term goal of colonizing Mars. However, the program has suffered multiple high-profile failures this year:
- March: A Starship exploded minutes after liftoff, scattering debris over Florida and the Bahamas. The FAA later attributed the cause to an engine hardware failure.
- May: A vehicle lost control mid-flight and spun out before mission completion, despite flying farther than previous tests.
- January: Another test flight ended in failure, with debris from a midair breakup damaging property in the Turks and Caicos.
In response to the March incident, SpaceX implemented eight corrective measures before resuming test launches.
Despite the repeated failures, Musk remains optimistic, often framing the setbacks as necessary “learning experiences” on the path to creating a reliable deep-space transport system.
As of now, SpaceX has not issued further comment. The FAA is expected to launch a new investigation before approving any future flights.
