Elon Musk has touted the SpaceX Starship as the spacecraft that will deliver humanity to Mars. However, the massive rocket can rarely make it to space without exploding. This time, the spacecraft didn’t even reach the launch pad before detonating. A Starship exploded while conducting a static fire test on Wednesday night in the private space company’s wholly-controlled Texas town. The test was being run in preparation for Starship’s tenth test flight. The three prior tests flown this year all ended in disaster.
The video footage of the explosion was stunning in its scale. One moment, it was just a mundane lull between static rocket fires as more cryogenic propellant was being loaded onboard. The next moment, the video feed went completely white as the sudden blast overwhelmed the camera’s exposure setting. A massive fireball came into view once the camera adjusted to the flames, then the blast’s sound wave finally hit. SpaceX referred to the incident as a “major anomaly.” The explosion was likely caused by a failure of the pressurized tank that stores gaseous nitrogen, according to the company’s initial report.
Their rocket explosions quickly become our problem
With no one injured in the massive blast, the next thought was what this means in terms of cleaning up. Despite presumably showering the surrounding area in debris, SpaceX stated:
“There are no hazards to the surrounding communities in the Rio Grande Valley. Previous independent tests conducted on materials inside Starship, including toxicity analyses, confirm they pose no chemical, biological, or toxicological risks. SpaceX is coordinating with local, state, and federal agencies, as appropriate, on matters concerning environmental and safety impacts.”
The underside of SpaceX’s Starships is covered in 18,000 black silica-based hexagonal tiles meant to protect the spacecraft from the extreme temperatures of atmospheric re-entry. Previous explosions over South Texas littered the area with these heat shield tiles, which ended up for sale on eBay. Recent failed test flights have exported these tiles to tropical locales like the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos. While failure can be an important aspect of technical development, it’s reprehensible to repeatedly fail again and again and leave others to literally clean up your mess while raking in billions of dollars.
