(Reuters)-Spacex Starship spacecraft exploded during Texas tests on Wednesday night, being the latest in a series of setbacks for the Billionaire Elon Musk’s Mars rocket program.
The explosion occurred around 11 pm, local time in Brownsville, while preparing for the tenth test flight, Spacex told a post on the musk social media platform of Musk.
The company attributed the fact to a “big anomaly” and said all the staff was safe.
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“Preliminary data suggest that a nitrogen COPV in the load compartment has failed below its test pressure,” Musk said in a post in the X, in a reference to an English -known nitrogen storage unit as Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel.
Spacex did not immediately respond to a comment request.
The Starship rocket seemed to have suffered at least two quick -successful explosions, illuminating the sky and throwing wreckage through the air, according to the video that captured the moment of the explosion.
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The 122 meter high Starship rocket system is a central part of Musk’s ambition to send human beings to Mars. However, it was harmed by a series of failures this year.
In late May, Spacex’s Starship rocket was out of control in half a flight and failed to achieve some of its most important test goals. The Starship took off from Spacex’s launch site at Starbase, Texas, flying beyond the point of two previous explosive attempts earlier this year, which sent wreckage on the Caribbean islands and forced dozens of airplanes to divert the course.
Two months earlier, the spacecraft exploded in the space minutes after taking off from Texas, leading the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to interrupt air traffic in parts of Florida.
