Early Friday morning at the SpaceX Starbase facility in Texas, a next-generation booster for the Starship rocket exploded during a pre-launch test. The incident occurred around 4 a.m. local time as engineers conducted a critical test of the upgraded Super Heavy booster.
Video footage showed a sudden burst of gas and a rapid structural failure in the booster section.
No one was reported injured, and the facility confirmed that all personnel were safe.
This explosion comes as SpaceX works to prepare Starship for its first orbital flight next year, a milestone tied to future lunar and Mars missions.
The failure may cause a delay in the development timeline while the company investigates what went wrong.
The booster is a vital piece of SpaceX’s next-generation launch system. The company now faces the task of identifying the fault, implementing fixes, and returning to the test-cycle without compromising safety or schedule.