{"id":305044,"date":"2025-11-24T06:35:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T06:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/305044\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T06:35:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T06:35:19","slug":"spacexs-next-gen-booster-fails-explodes-mid-air-what-elon-musks-company-said-on-the-explosion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/305044\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX\u2019s next-gen booster fails, explodes mid-air; what Elon Musk’s company said on the explosion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SpaceX\u2019sRepresentative Image (AP Photo\/Eric Gay) SpaceX<\/a>\u2019s latest iteration of its Starship<\/a> rocket suffered a dramatic setback early Friday when an explosion ripped through an upgraded booster undergoing testing at the company\u2019s Starbase facility in South Texas. The blast occurred at approximately 4:00 a.m. local time and was captured by livestreamers who routinely monitor the Boca Chica spaceport. Photos published afterward show that an entire section of the lower booster was blown out, though the structure remained upright.Unlike previous high-profile test failures involving fireball-style detonations during engine firings, the booster had not yet been outfitted with engines. According to Ars Technica, the vehicle was in the very early stages of validation as SpaceX performed \u201cgas system pressure testing.\u201d In a statement posted on Twitter, SpaceX confirmed the nature of the test and said the site had been cleared in advance, ensuring no injuries. \u201cThe teams need time to investigate before we are confident of the cause,\u201d the company wrote.The booster involved is the first full-scale component of what SpaceX calls Starship Version 3 (V3) — a next-generation design intended to be larger, more powerful and more reliable than earlier iterations. V3 is also expected to support in-orbit docking between Starships, a capability central to SpaceX\u2019s plans for crewed missions to the Moon and eventually Mars. The company flew the final V2 configuration in October.It remains unclear whether the explosion will significantly delay the Starship testing pipeline. Any prolonged disruption could have far-reaching effects on SpaceX\u2019s development roadmap.The company has outlined an ambitious 2026, including a critical demonstration of on-orbit fuel transfer between a Starship spacecraft and a tanker variant\u2014milestones NASA requires before approving crewed Artemis lunar landings, currently targeted for 2028.<\/p>\n

Pressure on SpaceX vs Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin<\/p>\n

Pressure is mounting from Washington. NASA’s just removed administrator Sean Duffy has publicly criticized SpaceX for the pace of Starship progress and had suggested that the agency may consider shifting more responsibility to Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin.Blue Origin, meanwhile, is accelerating its own heavy-lift program. The company recently launched its New Glenn rocket for the second time, successfully delivered a commercial NASA payload and landed a New Glenn booster for the first time. On Thursday, Blue Origin unveiled a redesigned, even larger version of New Glenn intended to compete more directly with Starship.As investigators work to determine the cause of Friday\u2019s explosion, SpaceX faces renewed scrutiny over Starship\u2019s schedule \u2014 and a tightening race with its biggest rival. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Representative Image (AP Photo\/Eric Gay) SpaceX\u2019s latest iteration of its Starship rocket suffered a dramatic setback early Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,34986,3120,173911,128,285,5437,28179],"class_list":{"0":"post-305044","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-blue-origin","11":"tag-elon-musk","12":"tag-nasa-artemis","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-space","15":"tag-spacex","16":"tag-starship"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}