Spacex’s Starship Rocket flew three times but he suffered four anomalies in 2025. Credit: Spacex
The huge spaceship of Spacex has undergone failures in his last three test flights in January, March and May. And the setbacks continue to come.
Before a 6 -engined static firefighting test on Wednesday evening, the spaceship “experienced a great anomaly while on a test support”, Spacex wrote on X. The video captured by Nasasspaceflight’s cameras shows the rocket that explodes on fire, creating an explosion that Ars Technica Reported could be seen and listened up to 30 miles away.
Spacex said he had maintained a clear safety area during the operation, not reporting injuries to staff or dangers to the surrounding communities. He said he is working with local officials to guarantee the test site and asked the members of the public to keep the distances.
The static fire test on the Spacex Massey test site was one of the last steps in view of the tenth Starship test flight, which for a Faa notice was targeting the launch on June 29. Now, it is not clear when the gigantic vehicle and its super heavy booster – that almost 400 feet have set up – will fly again.
The accident is the last obstacle in what was a difficult year for the spaceship. The rockets on flights 7 and 8 in January and March exploded in a few minutes in each mission, before the spaceship could reach the orbit. The anomalies briefly interrupted the air travel and prompted the FAA to double the size of the dangerous area of aircraft (AHA) for flight 9.
In that mission, Starship reached an orbit for the first time this year. But he suffered another anomaly before returning to Earth, preventing Spacex from doing critical tests during the return. The tests were intended to collect data that could facilitate a capture and return of the spaceship on the launch pad.
Spacex reported a different fault mode for each flight. La Faa requested that investigations on the accident would lead, but has assigned the return to flight determinations for 8 and 9 flights while the previous investigations remained open. The flight investigation 8 was closed last Thursday, about two weeks after the launch of flight 9.
The explosion on the test will grind the rocket again. Massey’s is located a few kilometers from the Spacex spaceship production structure and the Starbase launch pad in Texas. It is the only static astronave test site. The extent of the damage is not clear, but any repair will require a longer track for flight 10.
In particular, the accidents coincide with the introduction of Spacex of its Block 2 spaceship, which has the largest propellant tanks, greater useful load capacity and updated flaps and the heat shield than the iteration that flew in 2023 and 2024. In the original configuration, the spaceship, the spaceship, made its first return and Splashdown, and Spacex Heavy using a pair of giant metals in the first time.
The spaceship flew twice in 2023, four times in 2024, and this year he launched three times. But it has not been successful in those recent missions, which could extend the temporal sequence for several key objectives.
In addition to capturing and redoing the spaceship this year, as he did with Super Heavy on flight 9, Spacex previously hoped to complete a propellant transfer demonstration. But the CEO Elon Musk in February said that “probably” will take place in 2026.
The test is necessary to demonstrate that the spaceship could be fed in online-a key capacity for the Human Landing System (HLS) spaceship that Spacex is building to land the Astronauts of NASA on the Moon. That mission, Artemis 3, is scheduled for mid -2027. Spacex would also need to fly an astronave invoked on the moon before then.
Musk di Maggio has shared further ambitions for Mars, estimating that there is a “50/50” astronation could land on the red planet at the end of 2026. But this will require further test flights.
“The launch of the cadence for the next 3 flights will be faster, at about 1 every 3-4 weeks,” Musk promised after flight 9.
The company would have achieved this goal if Starship was launched on June 29th. The last setback, however, makes it highly unlikely.
Note of the editor: This story appeared for the first time Fly.
