Elon Musk-Londed Airline SpaceX suffered another blow to his ambitions on Mars late on Wednesday when the prototype of the star ship exploded during the routine ground test at Starbase, southern Texas.
According to the Cameron County, the authorities recorded a vehicle known as Starship 36 “catastrophic failure and exploded” shortly after 23:00 local time (04:00 GMT on Thursday). The rocket passed a static fire test, a standard procedure that includes engine burning, while the spacecraft remains anchored to the launch pad.
The shots shared on the social media captured the moment of the explosion and showed a clear flash followed by a towering cloud of fire -absorbing rocket that was connected to the starting tower.
SpaceX later confirmed the incident and stated that the vehicle came across “the main anomaly at the Starbase test stand”. While the company did not publish a specific cause, it stressed that safety protocols were followed. “During the operation, a clear security area around the site has been maintained and all staff are safe and charged,” the Social Media Society said.
The authorities also assured the public that there was no danger to nearby communities and urged people not to access the area while “safe” operations continue.
The explosion is the latest of a series of high -ranking failures for SpaceX’s Starship program, the central pillar of Musk’s long -term goal to make humanity a multiplanetary species. The fully reusable rocket, which is 123 meters high, is the strongest ever built and designed to transmit a payload of up to 150 metric tons into space.
This incident comes only a few weeks after the previous test Let Starship ended in failure when the vehicle disintegrated through the Indian Ocean after the start. Another test in May saw exploded a super heavy booster during its descent rather than performing controlled spraying in the Gulf of Mexico. Two earlier missions also ended in the fact that the upper phase disintegrated in the middle of the flight.
However, SpaceX continues his philosophy “He learns quickly”, which attributes its dominance in the sector of commercial universe. The company has recently managed to catch the Super Heavy Booster with massive Starbase robotic arms – an engineering milestone is perceived as critical for shortening the time and cost of the market.
NASA, which relies strongly on SpaceX for the transport of the crew through its dragon spacecraft, remains one of the company’s key partners. In May, the US Federal Air Air Administration approved the expansion of the annual SpaceX start from five to 25, despite the sticker of environmental groups that concerned the impact on local wild animals such as sea turtles and migratory birds.
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