Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 19, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleSpaceX's Starship exploded during testing in Texas, marking a setback for Elon Musk's Mars mission. The explosion was attributed to a nitrogen COPV failure.
(Reuters) -SpaceX's massive Starship spacecraft exploded into a dramatic fireball during testing in Texas late on Wednesday, the latest in a series of setbacks for billionaire Elon Musk’s Mars rocket program.
The explosion occurred around 11 p.m. local time while Starship was on a test stand at its Brownsville, Texas Starbase while preparing for the tenth test flight, SpaceX said in a post on Musk’s social-media platform X.
The company attributed it to a "major anomaly,” and said all personnel were safe.
“Preliminary data suggests that a nitrogen COPV in the payload bay failed below its proof pressure,” Musk said in a post on X, in a reference to a nitrogen gas storage unit known as a Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel. “If further investigation confirms that this is what happened, it is the first time ever for this design,” he continued.
SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for further comment.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru and Cassel Bryan-Low in London; Editing by Joe Brock and Aidan Lewis)
SpaceX attributed the explosion to a 'major anomaly,' suggesting that a nitrogen COPV in the payload bay failed below its proof pressure.
The explosion occurred at SpaceX's Starbase in Brownsville, Texas, during preparations for the tenth test flight.
SpaceX confirmed that all personnel were safe following the explosion.
The explosion occurred around 11 p.m. local time on Wednesday.
Elon Musk mentioned the incident in a post on X, referring to the failure of the nitrogen gas storage unit.
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