Space & Astronomy

Musk suffers new setback as Starship violently explodes during test firing

By T.K. Randall
June 19, 2025 ·  10 comments

Image Credit: SpaceX With Elon Musk having set his sights on sending colonists to Mars before the end of the decade, things haven't exactly been going quite to plan, especially when it comes to Starship - the space vehicle that is instrumental to his manned space exploration plans.

To date, Starship has suffered at least 14 major explosions (or rapid unscheduled disassemblies as SpaceX likes to call them) and although many of these occurred while testing early prototypes, many more have occurred quite recently during test flights and engine test fires.

The most recent happened earlier today when a Starship violently exploded while it was undergoing a routine static test fire ahead of what would have been the 10th official test flight of the vehicle.

According to SpaceX, Starship had suffered a "major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase"."A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for," the firm wrote.

"There are no hazards to residents in surrounding communities, and we ask that individuals do not attempt to approach the area while safing operations continue."

Although Elon Musk has always referred to such incidents as a learning exercise that will help to improve future launch attempts, given his ambitious timeline for flying to Mars, it's difficult not to imagine that he may be getting a bit frustrated by these issues.

No doubt SpaceX will get it right eventually, but it remains unclear how long that will actually take.

It's quite a step from having the vehicle repeatedly blow up to sending humans to Mars.


Source: The Guardian | Comments (10)

Tags: Starship, SpaceX