SpaceX's Starship suffers explosion before 10th test flight

One of SpaceX’s Starship rockets exploded on a test stand in Texas late on Wednesday night, as the company prepared for the tenth test flight of the heavy-lift rocket system. SpaceX said “all personnel are safe and accounted for” in a post on X, and claimed there are “no hazards to residents in surrounding communities.” The enormous explosion caused damage to the area surrounding the test stand, according to SpaceX, but there are no reported injuries.

Impact on SpaceX’s Starship Development

It’s not immediately clear what impact this will have on SpaceX’s development of the Starship rocket system. A recent advisory from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) suggested the tenth test flight could have happened as soon as June 29. That will most likely be delayed as the company works through what went wrong on Wednesday night. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a post seemingly related to the explosion that he considers it to be: “Just a scratch.”

Challenges Faced by Starship

SpaceX has spent the last few years aggressively developing the 171-foot Starship and the massive 232-foot Super Heavy booster that powers it into space. The company started 2025 saying this year would be a “transformational” one for the program, and the FAA recently increased its limit on Starship launches in Texas from five to 25. However, Starship has faced a number of problems this year, with multiple test flight failures and issues with deployment of dummy satellites. Musk has maintained that SpaceX is on track to try to send a Starship to Mars in 2026, giving it a “50/50” chance in a company update in May.

*This story has been updated with new information from SpaceX about what it believes to be the cause of the explosion.*