NEWS ALERT: Late last night, Elon Musk’s SpaceX suffered a major setback when one of its massive Starship rockets exploded during routine testing in Texas.
Watch the video down below.
The explosion deals a blow to Musk’s ambitious plans for Mars colonization and NASA’s critical Artemis Moon missions.
The catastrophic failure occurred at SpaceX’s Starbase facility near the Texas-Mexico border.
Video footage captured the moment the world’s largest and most powerful rocket erupted into a massive fireball during what was supposed to be a standard static fire test.
This marks the fourth Starship explosion this year, highlighting the challenges of developing revolutionary space technology.
SpaceX quickly confirmed the incident on social media, describing it as a “major anomaly” while assuring the public that safety protocols worked as intended.
“A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for,” the company stated.
Despite such setbacks, SpaceX follows a “fail fast, learn fast” approach, which has previously proven effective in their commercial spaceflight missions.
This has allowed SpaceX to become the first private company regularly flying astronauts to the International Space Station.
The Starship rocket remains central to both American space dominance and Musk’s vision of making humans a multi-planetary species.
Despite environmental activists’ attempts to block progress, the Federal Aviation Administration recently approved increasing annual Starship launches from five to 25, recognizing the importance of American leadership in space exploration.
The explosion comes at a crucial time for SpaceX, which is working to support NASA’s Artemis program that will return American astronauts to the Moon as early as 2027.
Starship is also crucial for launching the private Starlab space station and transporting Musk’s innovative Optimus robots to Mars by 2026, with human Mars landings potentially following by 2029.
“If those landings go well, then human landings may start as soon as 2029, although 2031 is more likely,” Musk said.
Local authorities have confirmed that the explosion poses “no hazards to residents in surrounding communities.”
Still, SpaceX has advised people to avoid the area while safety operations continue. An investigation into the cause of the explosion is already underway.
Amid these setbacks, Musk’s private enterprise approach has ultimately revolutionized space travel, created thousands of jobs, and ensured the United States remains the world leader in space technology.
WOW! SpaceX’s Starship 36 just exploded in a massive fireball prior to launch. pic.twitter.com/5X5mkoXJpx
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) June 19, 2025
