Overview

• The Starship prototype Ship36 exploded during a static fire test at Starbase, Texas, on June 18 as engineers loaded propellant ahead of its planned tenth flight.
• SpaceX confirmed that all personnel moved outside a safety perimeter were safe and that no injuries were reported despite the blast shaking nearby communities.
• Video from livestreams showed a massive fireball and significant damage to the test stand and adjacent infrastructure at the Massey facility.
• The next test launch, previously targeted for June 29, has been postponed after SpaceX and local officials began an investigation into the anomaly.
• The explosion follows three consecutive Starship failures in 2025 and poses fresh challenges for the program’s role in NASA’s Artemis lunar missions, though SpaceX maintains its rapid-iteration approach.