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Founder Elon Musk tweeted that the team was “assessing the damage” after the early evening explosion.
A booster rocket developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX for its next-generation Starship spacecraft ignited during a ground test launch in Texas on Monday, causing a likely setback to Musk’s goal of launching Starship into orbit later this year.
“Yeah, not good actually. The team is assessing the damage,” Musk tweeted after the early evening explosion of the Super Heavy Booster 7 prototype, as seen in a live feed recorded by the NASA Spaceflight website. There were no immediate signs of injury.
It was unclear what caused the explosion, which engulfed the base of the rocket in a ball of flames and thick smoke and appeared to shake the video camera, although the booster remained upright, bolted down to test the portal afterwards.
The failure occurred in the middle of a multi-day static fire test campaign in Boca Chica, Texas, of the booster, which is equipped with an array of 33 Raptor engines for use in an upcoming unmanned orbital test flight SpaceX hoped to conduct later. year.
SpaceX’s complete spacecraft, which will stand 394 feet (120 meters) tall when attached to the superheavy first stage booster, is the company’s next-generation launch vehicle at the heart of Musk’s ambitions to make human space travel more accessible and routine.
SpaceX did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment when asked about Monday’s explosion.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) also did not respond to a question about whether it would investigate the explosion.
In late 2020 and early 2021, SpaceX lost four prototypes of the starship itself in a series of high-altitude test launches in which reentry attempts ended in explosions on landing. A prototype starship finally made a safe landing in May 2021.
