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Space

Elon Musk's massive Mars rocket suffers an explosive setback

By Nick Lavars
July 11, 2022
Elon Musk's massive Mars rocket suffers an explosive setback
A SpaceX Starship SN8 prototype during an earlier test flight
A SpaceX Starship SN8 prototype during an earlier test flight
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A SpaceX Starship SN8 prototype during an earlier test flight
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A SpaceX Starship SN8 prototype during an earlier test flight

It was a case of two steps forward, one step back for SpaceX’s Starship development program today, with a dramatic explosion from a prototype of the company’s Mars-bound rocket during testing on the ground. The fiery event took place at SpaceX’s Boca Chica facility in Texas, and may delay its plans for the booster’s first orbital flight.

SpaceX had been making decent progress with the development of its Starship, the deep-space vehicle at the heart of CEO Elon Musk’s plans to establish a human settlement on Mars. Last year, following a series of failed and explosive attempts the company finally carried out a sub-orbital flight of an upper stage Starship prototype and safely landed it thereafter. Musk said recently he had hoped for an orbital flight this month.

Today’s testing involved a version of Super Heavy, the giant first-stage booster designed to power Starship into orbit with a total of 33 SpaceX Raptor engines. A firing of these engines on the pad at Boca Chica today resulted in a heavy explosion, visibly shaking cameras recording the tests as captured by NASA Spaceflight.

“Yeah, actually not good. Team is assessing damage,” tweeted Musk in response.

Though everything around the rocket appeared to remain intact, the booster did continue to emit thick smoke for some time after. Musk didn’t expand on the possible cause for the explosion, but did add context around the complexities of using cryogenic fuel, which is required for Super Heavy to generate the necessary degree of force.

“Cryogenic fuel is an added challenge, as it evaporates to create fuel-air explosion risk in a partially oxygen atmosphere like Earth,” he tweeted. “That said, we have a lot of sensors to detect this. More later.”

Source: Twitter (NASA Spaceflight)

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9 comments
Nick Lavars
Nick Lavars
Nick has been writing and editing at New Atlas for over six years, where he has covered everything from distant space probes to self-driving cars to oddball animal science. He previously spent time at The Conversation, Mashable and The Santiago Times, earning a Masters degree in communications from Melbourne’s RMIT University along the way.

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9 comments
Robt
Space flight is extremely difficult, and often dangerous. Space X will keep plugging away until they get it right
Unsold
Well, so long as the explosion was tactful, I guess we're okay. Explosions can be so boorish.
DavidB
@Robt’s right: You can’t bake a cake without breaking some eggs.

That said, I often wonder whether billionaires’ extraordinary resources might get be better used in solving very real problems right here on the planet beneath our feet, notably the only planet we already know *could* support the survival of all the species we already know exist.
Ornery Johnson
"A bad week for Elon" is putting it mildly...
FB36
“Cryogenic fuel is an added challenge, as it evaporates to create fuel-air explosion risk in a partially oxygen atmosphere like Earth,” he tweeted. “That said, we have a lot of sensors to detect this.":

No offense but having a lot of sensors does not seem to be enough!
Can we really say for sure that environmentally-friendly & also safe rocket biofuel is impossible?
CraigAllenCorson
@DavidB - Space exploration is one very effective way of solving problems on Earth. Without space satellites, we would have been caught unawares by the ozone hole, and would not have known to do anything about it. Just one example of hundreds, or thousands.
Karmudjun
How many engineers have commented on this article? How many times do you have to prototype before you have a well engineered and viable product?
Yeah, cryogenic fuel is very risky around Oxygen and with those narrow parameters for safety, having plenty of sensors gives them a heads up on locating the issue. Some people think the sensors should have aborted the process avoiding an explosions....not what they are designed to do, they are there to best understand the prototype's successes and failures. Engineers understand that. It isn't that you have to break a lot of pencils drawing up plans (breaking eggs for a cake) but continuously adapt the plans you have until a successful product is viable and scale-able. And no engineer will tell you the successful product will be problem free - but it is better to find the problems at this stage if you pardon the (bad) pun.
spyinthesky
Surely cryogenic fuel is not exclusive to SpaceX, of course feeding it to 33 engines could be another matter this feels like they are a long way from a launch 🚀 I’m afraid even on elontime. N1 comes too easily to mind beyond already superficial comparisons and hardly going to ease the pressure on and from the FAA in giving a go ahead for a launch when South Padre Island is what 7 miles away? Musks reputation very much on the line here.
Daishi
Another tax subsidized money furnace.