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Musk wrote that nitrogen COPV seems to have failed below its proof pressure, in conditions that should not have damaged the tank. “If a more in -depth investigation confirms that this is what happened, this is the first time for this design,” added Musk.
Pick up the parts
Earlier Wednesday, a few hours before the end of evening explosion in Starbase, an opinion published by the Federal Aviation Administration showed that SpaceX had set on June 29 as a provisional launch date for the next Starship test flight. It will not happen now, and it is anyone who guess when SpaceX will have another ship ready to fly.
The Massey test site, named after a range of firearms that formerly occupied the property, is located on a turn in the Rio Grande river, a few hundred meters from the Mexican border. The test site is currently the only place where SpaceX can place the vessel vessels thanks to static evidence and fire tests before declaring that the rockets are ready to fly.
The extent of damage to ground equipment at Massey was not immediately clear, so it is too early to say how long the test site will be out of service. For the moment, however, the explosion leaves SpaceX without an installation to support the outdoor tests on the spaceships.
The integrated videos below come from nasaspaceflight.com and labpadre, showing several angles of the starship explosion.
Massey’s explosion is a reminder of the rocky path of SpaceX to obtain the vessel so in its development. In 2020 and 2021, SpaceX lost several starship prototypes because of problems during ground and flight tests. The visual of Ship 36 which rises in flames begins again to these previous explosions, as well as the ardent disappearance of a Falcon 9 rocket On its launching ramp in 2016 in circumstances similar to the incident on Wednesday evening.
SpaceX has now launched nine large-scale starship rockets since April 2023, and before the explosion, the company hoped to launch the 10th test flight later this month. The history of starships have been awful so far this year, the last three Rocket test flights ending prematurely. These setbacks followed a 2024 Triumphant, when SpaceX clearly progressed on each successive suborbital flight of starship, leading to the first grip of the super heavy furniture of the rocket with giant robotic arms on the launch ramp tower.
Stacked, the super heavy booster scene and the upper stage of starship are more than 400 feet high, creating the largest rocket ever built. SpaceX has already traveled a reused super heavy booster, and the company has also designed Starship itself to be recoverable and reusable.
After last year’s achievements, SpaceX seemed to be on the right track for a complete orbital flight, an attempt to catch and recover the vessel itself, and a significant refueling demonstration in space In 2025. The refueling demo officially slipped in 2026, and it is questionable if SpaceX will make enough progress in the coming months to try to recover a ship before the end of this year.
Ambition meets reality
SpaceX made its debut on an improved starship design, called version 2 or block 2, on a test flight in January. It has been a setback after the others since then.
The new Starship design is slightly larger than the starship version that SpaceX stolen in 2023 and 2024. It has an improved thermal shield to better resist the extreme heat of atmospheric reintegration. SpaceX has also installed a new fuel supply line system to transport the methane fuel to the raptor engines of the ship, and an improved propulsion aircraft module controlling valves and vehicle reading sensors.
