SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submission Preview
Massive explosion rocks SpaceX Texas facility, Starship engine in flames
Massive explosion rocks SpaceX Texas facility, Starship engine in flames [interestingengineering.com]
Elon Musk had recently announced that Starship’s fourth flight test could be just days away.
[...] SpaceX has yet to provide an update on the explosion, which took place at its Boca Chica Starbase facilities in southern Texas. The footage shows SpaceX’s engine test pad going up in flame.
The footage started a little after 4:12 pm local time. Roughly 14 seconds after ignition, the Raptor engine shut off. As the vapor surrounding the test tower dissipated, a fire appeared to start underneath the engine. These flames traveled upwards, causing a second explosion to engulf the entire tower.
In a tweet accompanying a clip from the footage, NASASpaceflight wrote, “The raptor testing stand at McGregor experienced an anomaly a few moments ago. The vapors from the anomaly caused a secondary explosion on the test stand.”
A short video is here. [youtube.com]
