SpaceX, which has managed to open a new page in the space age, continues to work on its journey to carry out a manned mission to Mars. While the tests on the Starship spacecraft, which will enable the company to achieve this goal, continue, an unexpected situation occurred in the last test that took place tonight.
The Starship test, which took place on the ground at SpaceX’s Boca Chica facilities in Texas, ended with the explosion that took place as soon as it started. In testing with the spacecraft’s Super Heavy thruster, an explosion occurred as soon as the rocket’s engines ignited. The explosion was strong enough to shake even the cameras that shot the rocket from afar during the live broadcast.
Explosion in the booster of the Starship rocket:
Upon this event, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also made a brief statement on his Twitter account. Musk said, “Yeah, not very well. The team detects the damage.” He made his statements. While no precise information was given as to why the explosion occurred, Musk pointed to fuel as the source of the problem: “Cryogenic fuel is an additional challenge as it poses the risk of a fuel-air explosion in a partially oxygenated atmosphere like Earth. On the other hand, we have a lot of sensors to detect it.”
The Starship rocket has undergone many successful and unsuccessful tests since it began to be developed. After these tests, the rocket finally landed successfully in May 2021, making the necessary maneuvers in the high altitude test.