In the latest episode of a dark series that is beginning to take on nightmarish proportions, SpaceX's immense Starship has once again gone up in smoke.
The incident took place during the night of Wednesday to Thursday at the Starbase site in South Texas. SpaceX was carrying out a battery of tests intended to prepare its latest Starship for a highly anticipated tenth test flight, in a context where the company has suffered several bitter setbacks since the beginning of the year.
As a reminder, it has already been eight months since the second stage of the vehicle – the Starship itself – has had a nominal flight without a major technical incident. The last time was during the 6th flight, in November 2024; It had reignited its engines in space for the first time after a successful takeoff, before crashing into the ocean as planned.
Three consecutive failures
This very promising flight was also the last of the Starship Block 1, the old model that has since been replaced. Its successor, the Block 2, was supposed to mark a real turning point in the company's roadmap. Notably thanks to several structural improvements, an extended fuel tank, and new thermal protection elements, among others.
Time, challenges, schedule... everything you need to know about the 9th flight of SpaceX's Starship
But the least we can say is that it has given engineers plenty of headaches since taking office. Its maiden flight, on the occasion of the 7th test flight, ended in an explosion due to a complex structural problem. The 8th flight ended just as abruptly, when SpaceX was forced to initiate the self-destruct procedure following a loss of control. And to honor the old adage “never two without three,” it suffered a fuel leak in the middle of its 9th flight, forcing operators to once again press the red button.
Suffice it to say that Elon Musk's troops were under pressure before the 10th test flight, scheduled for the relatively near future. It was absolutely essential to avoid another explosion to give Starship Block 2 its first success and put the program back on track.
The Block 2 black streak continues
The good news is that the Starship did not explode in flight. The bad news is that it went up in smoke before it even had a chance to take off, during a simple static fire test.
For reference, these static fire tests simply consist of firing the engines while the vehicle remains anchored to the ground. This is part of the pre-launch routine; it's simply a way to ensure that the propulsion system is working as expected before launch day. This new Starship should have passed the test without a hitch, considering that three of its six engines had already been successfully tested earlier this week.
But the opposite happened: Ship 36 was pulverized by an absolutely spectacular explosion. The images are as eloquent as they are impressive; In this video captured by NASA SpaceFlight, we see an extremely intense flash that lasted several seconds, before giving way to a huge fireball.
Beyond the loss of the vehicle, the main question that remains unanswered concerns the condition of the test bench. It is entirely possible that it was damaged by the explosion.
This hypothesis has not been officially confirmed at this time, and is based mainly on testimonies from local residents who were impressed by the violence of the explosion. We will therefore have to wait for an official clarification to learn more. But if so, it would be a serious blow for the company; Depending on the extent of the damage, repairs could take several weeks or even months of work by the technical teams, with all that this implies for the firm's schedule.
A stagnation that does not bode well
What is certain, however, is that Starship Block 2 will still have to wait some time before celebrating its first victory. And meanwhile, the company is accumulating a delay that is starting to become more than worrying for its partners. This includes NASA and Artemis, its ambitious program to recapture the Moon.
Starship is expected to play a central role in the program's third mission, the one that will have the heavy responsibility of returning astronauts to our satellite for the first time since the Apollo era. Without the behemoth SpaceX, the agency will be forced to push back this deadline even further, with all the logistical and economic difficulties that this entails. An obviously very boring prospect for the agency, as former administrator Bill Nelson had already pointed out.
In this already difficult context, this new incident will further increase the pressure already weighing on SpaceX. More than ever, the company will be expected to deliver. It will absolutely have to resolve the problems with its Starship Block 2 as quickly as possible to escape this highly problematic phase of stagnation, which will be anything but child's play given the current trend.
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