Setback for Elon Musk's dream Mars project as SpaceX rocket explodes during testing

Austin [Texas], June 20 : The Elon Musk-headed SpaceX's newest Starship exploded ahead of a routine engine test in Texas, leading to a complete loss of the aircraft and damage to the immediate area surrounding the stand, the company has said.

The Starship is a two-stage fully reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by SpaceX as part of Elon Musk's dream to send humans to live on Mars. At 403 ft high, Starship is billed as the world's largest and most powerful rocket.

The incident took place on June 18 as the company was testing a Starship's upper stage at its site, Starbase situated in South Texas ahead of the megarocket's 10th flight test.

In a social media post on X on Thursday, the US aerospace company Space X said that the incident took place around 11 pm (local time) on June 19.

It said that the rocket was preparing for the 10th flight test when it "experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase"

"A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for," SpaceX said. "Our Starbase team is actively working to safe the test site and the immediate surrounding area in conjunction with local officials. There are no hazards to residents in surrounding communities in the Rio Grande Valley, and we ask that individuals do not attempt to approach the area while safing operations continue."

"There are no reported injuries, and all personnel are safe and accounted for," Space X statement said.

"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 company said.

As a successor to SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, Starship is intended to perform a wide range of space missions.

The vehicle consists of two elements, both designed to be fully and rapidly reusable a first-stage booster called Super Heavy and a 171-foot-tall (52 meters) upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship, or Ship.

In May this year ten minutes after it was launched a Starship prototype lost altitude control after several engines failed just before the end of the ascent burn. The spacecraft, launched from SpaceX's Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach in Texas, eventually broke apart, with flaming debris seen in the skies over the Atlantic Ocean. Social media users in Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas captured videos of the dramatic re-entry.The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) later reported that space launch debris led to temporary flight disruptions at several Florida airports.

US space agency the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) relying on SpaceX, whose Dragon spacecraft is used to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

Meanwhile, on Friday ISS announced that the Axiom-4 mission, set to carry Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla to space, has been delayed once again.

The International Space Station (ISS) said in a statement, "NASA, Axiom Space and SpaceX continue reviewing launch opportunities for Axiom Mission 4. NASA is standing down from a launch on Sunday, June 22, and will target a new launch date in the coming days."

Earlier, the Axiom-4 mission launch scheduled for June 19 was delayed till June 22 due to technical snags in SpaceX's Falcon 9 spacecraft.

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