SpaceX Test Causes a Dumpster Fire—Literally
A ‘static fire test’ of SpaceX’s Starship rocket goes wrong.
First, the good news: SpaceX successfully ignited all six engines on its Starship S24 prototype during a static fire test.
Now the bad. The test caused a super-hot hailstorm of debris to scatter hundreds of feet away from the rocket, causing a brush fire that “began to burn unusually aggressively, quickly growing into walls of flames that sped across the terrain,” according to .
The fire raged in all directions, eventually finding its way to, you guessed it, a SpaceX dumpster, which burned for hours. Local fire crews were called to Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, to put out the fire. A video of the incident can be found on YouTube.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has not commented publicly on the mishap. But he has touted the gigantic new Starship as a vehicle that can transport humans to the moon, Mars, and beyond. It’s “a generalized transport mechanism for the greater solar system,” .
Starship is powered by Raptor engines, a huge first-stage booster called Super Heavy, and a 165-foot-tall upper-stage spacecraft called Starship.
SpaceX is gearing up for a landmark Starship orbital mission later this year.
First, the good news: SpaceX successfully ignited all six engines on its Starship S24 prototype during a static fire test.
Now the bad. The test caused a super-hot hailstorm of debris to scatter hundreds of feet away from the rocket, causing a brush fire that “began to burn unusually aggressively, quickly growing into walls of flames that sped across the terrain,” according to .
The fire raged in all directions, eventually finding its way to, you guessed it, a SpaceX dumpster, which burned for hours. Local fire crews were called to Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, to put out the fire. A video of the incident can be found on YouTube.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has not commented publicly on the mishap. But he has touted the gigantic new Starship as a vehicle that can transport humans to the moon, Mars, and beyond. It’s “a generalized transport mechanism for the greater solar system,” .
Starship is powered by Raptor engines, a huge first-stage booster called Super Heavy, and a 165-foot-tall upper-stage spacecraft called Starship.
SpaceX is gearing up for a landmark Starship orbital mission later this year.
