Eyewitness video released on Thursday (June 19) shows the moment Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship 36 exploded during testing in Brownsville, Texas, United States. Reuters was able to confirm the location from spacecraft equipment and structures which match with satellite and livestream footage. The date was verified by the announcement from SpaceX and file data. (Reuters)
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SpaceX‘s massive Starship spacecraft exploded into a dramatic fireball during testing in Texas late on Wednesday, the latest in a series of setbacks for billionaire Elon Musk’s Mars rocket program.
The explosion occurred around 11 p.m. local time while Starship was on a test stand at its Brownsville, Texas Starbase while preparing for the tenth test flight, SpaceX said in a post on Musk’s social-media platform X.
The company attributed it to a “major anomaly,” and said all personnel were safe.
“Preliminary data suggests that a nitrogen COPV in the payload bay failed below its proof pressure,” Musk said in a post on X, in a reference to a nitrogen gas storage unit known as a Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel. “If further investigation confirms that this is what happened, it is the first time ever for this design,” he continued.
SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for further comment.
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(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru and Cassel Bryan-Low in London; Editing by Joe Brock and Aidan Lewis)
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