What caused the new starship explosion?

The largest rocket in the world exploded again And this time, it didn’t even have to take off for this to happen. On the night of last Wednesday (18), Spacex reported that the Starship performed a static fire test (in which its six raptor engines are activated) when a Failure made the vehicle explode. In a new update, the company seems to have discovered the cause of the incident.

“The initial analysis indicates the possible failure of a pressurized tank, known as COPV (coated compound pressure vessel), containing gaseous nitrogen in the Starship nasal cone area, but the full review of the data is underway,” wrote the company.

Spacex also ensures that the incident does not affect the operation of Falcon 9, reusable rockets that have already performed hundreds of flights by the company. “There is no similarity between the COPVs used in the Starship and the Spacex Falcon rockets,” the text adds.

Anomaly! Just before ship 36 was set to static fire, it blew up at spacex masseys!

Live on x and yt:https://t.co/gpjzix1zyd pic.twitter.com/cfzhdesgae

– NSF – naspaceflight.com (@nasaspaceflight) June 19, 2025

According to the company, no one was injured, and a security zone was maintained throughout the operation. In addition, the analyzes indicate that smoke and explosion products do not pose a risk to the population that lives around Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas (USA).

Read more:

Anterior independent tests, conducted with Starship materials – including toxicity analysis – confirm that they have no chemical, biological or toxicological risks

Spacex

Explosion occurred during testing

The Starship consists of two stages: the ship and the propeller (called Super Heavy). The explosion occurred on the ship before a static firing test when the engines are triggered while the vehicle remains on the ground.

The test took place at Starship’s Massey base, a different platform from that used for releases. Therefore, there was no damage to the structure from which the rocket usually takes off.

Difficult days for Starship

If 2024 ended with a great advance in the world’s largest rocket program, 2025 is following the opposite path. Elon Musk projected about 25 releases in 2025, but so far there have been only three, all failed.

In the last, held in Maythe second stage (which names the vehicle complex) suffered a fuel leakage. The Starship ship should go to the Indian Ocean and land near Australia. However, after losing direction control during the flight, it could not position itself correctly to the reentry.

To reduce risks, a safety system has released the internal pressure of the Starship. Even so, the contact was lost after 46 minutes of flight, and the ship was destroyed.

In the previous two missions of this year, the ship was lost in less than 10 minutes of flight. Now a new setback occurs even before the tenth release is made.

The ninth flight investigation has not yet been completed, and Starship can only fly again after authorization from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). At the moment, there is no forecast for the tenth flight.