SpaceX’s Starship booster appears to burst apart in ground test

(Bloomberg/Loren Grush) — A newly upgraded version of SpaceX’s Starship rocket suffered an apparent failure during a ground test early Friday in South Texas, according to bystander footage of the event.

Video taken of SpaceX’s Starbase facility shows the booster, known as Super Heavy, bursting apart as it was being filled with super-cold propellants on a test stand.

On Thursday, SpaceX announced that the Super Heavy booster was about to begin ground tests ahead of the next Starship launch.

SpaceX has not commented on social media about the incident. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for further details.

The new prototype that was being tested is known as Version 3, or V3, which is meant to serve as a “gigantic upgrade” to the Starship rocket, according to SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk.

Starship V3 is supposed to significantly increase the carrying capacity of the rocket and improve SpaceX’s ability to reuse the entire vehicle after launch.

“Unless we have some very major setbacks, SpaceX will demonstrate full reusability next year, catching both the booster and the ship and being able to deliver over 100 tons to a useful orbit,” Musk said during an appearance on the All-In Podcast in September.

SpaceX is developing and testing Starship, advertised as the most powerful rocket ever built, to ready the vehicle for launching satellites and taking cargo and humans to the moon and Mars. The company holds a contract with NASA to turn Starship into a lunar lander for the agency’s Artemis program, as NASA races to beat rival China in sending humans back to the moon.

However, SpaceX has come under criticism this year for slow progress on Starship, following numerous test failures and delays to the vehicle’s schedule.

NASA’s acting administrator, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, recently announced plans to open up SpaceX’s contract to competition from rivals such as Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin LLC, in order to find potential alternatives that might get NASA astronauts to the moon faster.

SpaceX announced that it submitted an alternative plan to NASA for getting astronauts to the moon more quickly.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.