SpaceX's ongoing mission to prepare Starship spacecraft for trips to the moon and, eventually, Mars suffered a setback when a spacecraft exploded this week in South Texas. The explosion happened during what SpaceX called routine testing in preparation for Starship's 10th flight since 2023, which was expected to happen later this month.

The 171-foot-tall (52-meter-tall) vehicle exploded on a test stand at SpaceX's Starbase site late Wednesday night (June 18) as the company was preparing to ignite its six Raptor engines in a "static fire" trial. A day later, SpaceX narrowed in on a likely cause.

Starship is being developed as a fully reusable transportation system. This means the rocket and spacecraft will be able to return to the ground for additional missions. In the coming years Starship is intended to carry cargo and humans to the moon and outside of earth’s orbit.