SpaceX's Starship rocket explodes in Texas while preparing for test flight
發佈日期: 2025-06-20 21:45
TVB News
SpaceX's massive Starship spacecraft exploded into a fireball while preparing for the 10th test flight in southern Texas late Wednesday.
This is the fourth failure so far this year for Elon Musk's Starship rocket. Musk has attributed the explosion to a nitrogen storage unit failure.
Tracey Furniss has more.
It was around 11 p.m. Wednesday night when this massive explosion at Elon Musk's Starbase in southern Texas rocked the surrounding neighbourhood of Brownsville.
Residents saying their homes shook but no injuries were reported. The company says the Starship "experienced a major anomaly."
The Starship was on a test stand while preparing for the 10th test flight. Musk making light of the explosion posting, "Just a scratch."
Engineering teams are investigating the incident and the company says it is coordinating with local, state and federal agencies regarding environmental and safety impacts.
Musk wrote on X that "preliminary data suggests that a nitrogen COPV in the payload bay failed below its proof pressure," in 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," Musk wrote.
The 400-foot-tall Starship rocket system is at the core of Musk's goal of sending humans to Mars. But it has been beset by a string of failures this year.
In late May, SpaceX's Starship rocket spun out of control about halfway through a flight without achieving some of its most important testing goals.
It flew beyond the point of two previous explosive attempts earlier in the year that sent debris streaking over Caribbean islands and forced dozens of airliners to divert course.
