Eyewitnesses described a sudden, fiery explosion that scattered debris across the facility. Fortunately, no injuries were reported in the incident.

The blast caused major damage to the Starship prototype and forced SpaceX to halt all launch preparations indefinitely.

The company had planned its next major Starship flight for June 29, which would have been the 10th test of this world’s largest and most powerful rocket system.

Texas: A massive explosion shook Elon Musk’s testing site at Massey, Texas, on Thursday, halting preparations for the next Starship launch. The dramatic blast destroyed a Starship prototype and derailed plans for the rocket system’s tenth test flight.

The explosion occurred before a scheduled static-fire test of Ship 36, a procedure that tests a rocket’s engines by igniting the vehicle as it remains anchored to the ground, serving as a final systems check before launch.

Blast Sent Debris Flying Across The Facility

The tremendous explosion took place as engineers readied for a vital static fire test. The test is a necessary procedure that includes igniting the rocket’s engines while it is grounded.

Eyewitnesses reported that the fiery blast was soon followed by debris scattering over the test facility. Fortunately, no injuries have been reported but the prototype has suffered significant damage.

Addressing the situation promptly, SpaceX issued a statement that read, “On Wednesday, June 18 at approximately 11 p.m. CT, the Starship preparing for the tenth flight test experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase. A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for. Our Starbase team is actively working to safe the test site and the immediate surrounding area in conjunction with local officials. There are no hazards to residents in surrounding communities, and we ask that individuals do not attempt to approach the area while safing operations continue.”

More Wait To Touch Mars

SpaceX Starship is central to Musk’s long-time dream of making human beings a Mars species as well. The plan is to send 1,000–2,000 ships to Mars every two years to build a permanent, self-sustaining human settlement.

The forthcoming flight was anticipated to feature the first reused Super Heavy booster which is an essential step toward reducing launch costs and increasing frequency.

The anticipated launch date was June 29 but now the schedule is uncertain. Engineers are working to identify the exact cause of the explosion and the subsequent failure.

Fourth setback in 2025?

The test’s failure, which spiraled into a gigantic fiery ball, marked another setback for the high-profile Starship test flights in 2025. Earlier this year, one test flight exploded mid-air over the Caribbean Sea and the same happened with another over the Atlantic Ocean. Further, just last month, a SpaceX rocket exploded over the Indian Ocean.

As each explosion invites investigations by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), temporary airspace restrictions and additional safety reviews delay SpaceX’s plans.

But despite these setbacks, Musk is committed to the Starship mission to Mars in late 2026 which will carry a simulated crew of humanoid Optimus robots designed by Tesla. Upon success, subsequent missions can also carry human beings.

SpaceX conducts a static fire test with a Starship upper stage on May 12, 2025, ahead of Starship’s ninth test flight. The Flight 10 Starship upper stage exploded on June 18, 2025 on a test stand, apparently shortly before performing a similar engine test.

SpaceX’s newest Starship vehicle just went up in smoke.

The company was testing a Starship upper stage at its Starbase site in South Texas on Wednesday night (June 18), to prepare for the megarocket’s upcoming 10th flight test.

But something went very wrong, as video captured by NASASpaceflight.com shows: The vehicle exploded, sending a massive fireball high into the dark Texas skies.

ANOMALY! Just before Ship 36 was set to Static Fire, it blew up at SpaceX Masseys!Live on X and YT:https://t.co/GPjZIX1Zyd pic.twitter.com/CfZhDeSGaeJune 19, 2025

SpaceX acknowledged the incident in an X post early on Thursday morning (June 19), noting that it occurred around 11 p.m. local time (midnight EDT and 0400 GMT on June 19).

“A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for,” SpaceX added in the post. “Our Starbase team is actively working to safe the test site and the immediate surrounding area in conjunction with local officials. There are no hazards to residents in surrounding communities, and we ask that individuals do not attempt to approach the area while safing operations continue.”

SpaceX is developing Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, to help humanity colonize Mars, among other ambitious exploration tasks.

The vehicle consists of two elements, both of which are designed to be fully and rapidly reusable — a first-stage booster called Super Heavy and a 171-foot-tall (52 meters) upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship, or simply Ship.

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It was Ship that exploded on Wednesday night, on a test stand at Starbase’s Massey site (not the orbital launch mount, from which Starship liftoffs occur). According to NASASpaceflight, which closely monitors Starship activity at Starbase, the anomaly occurred just before Ship was set to perform a static-fire test.

Static fires are common prelaunch tests, in which a rocket’s engines are briefly ignited while the vehicle remains anchored to the ground. SpaceX had already conducted a static fire with this Ship, though that trial involved just one of its Raptor engines; this test may have been intended to fire up all six of them.

SpaceX has also already static-fired the Flight 10 Super Heavy booster, successfully igniting all 33 of its Raptors.

Wednesday night’s explosion continued a string of setbacks for Starship upper stages. Ship has broken apart on the last three Starship test flights, which launched in January, March and May of this year.

On Flight 7 and Flight 8, the “rapid unscheduled disassembly” occurred less than 10 minutes after liftoff. Ship flew significantly farther on Flight 9; SpaceX lost contact with the vehicle about 46 minutes after liftoff, and its pieces are likely resting on the Indian Ocean seabed.

Super Heavy has performed better. On Flight 7 and Flight 8, for example, the booster returned to Starbase after launch for a dramatic catch by the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms. The Flight 7 Super Heavy flew again on Flight 9, notching a major reusability milestone for the Starship program. (SpaceX did not attempt to recover the booster on Flight 9, and it broke apart as it was coming in for a planned “hard splashdown” in the Gulf of Mexico.)

SpaceX is still looking into what happened on Flight 9, an investigation overseen by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. So there was not yet an official target launch date for Starship Flight 10 — and, if there had been, it would now have to be revised after the events of Wednesday night.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX encountered a fresh obstacle when its Starship prototype erupted in a powerful explosion during a ground-based engine test in Texas on Wednesday. The blast, which took place moments ahead of the planned ignition sequence, severely damaged the spacecraft and may have impacted nearby facilities as well.

Ship 36, a spacecraft slated for a forthcoming trial mission, was in the midst of a standard engine ignition test at SpaceX’s Starbase site in Texas when it unexpectedly detonated late at night. The blast inflicted major harm on the Starship test vehicle and compelled SpaceX to halt all launch activities without a set timeline for resumption.

“In a statement posted on X, the company said, “On Wednesday, June 18 at approximately 11 p.m. CT, the Starship preparing for the tenth flight test experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase.”

“A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for,” it added.

“Our Starbase team is actively working to safe the test site and the immediate surrounding area in conjunction with local officials. There are no hazards to residents in surrounding communities, and we ask that individuals do not attempt to approach the area while safing operations continue,” the company added.

On Wednesday, June 18 at approximately 11 p.m. CT, the Starship preparing for the tenth flight test experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase. A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted… — SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 19, 2025

Videos shared across social media platforms capture a giant explosion at the site, with flames rapidly spreading and consuming the nearby area.