SpaceX Starship explodes preparing for 10th test flight
Why it matters: The vehicle has experienced multiple failures this year, breaking apart during its last three test flights.
"Just a scratch," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on X Thursday, in apparent reference to the explosion.
Zoom in: The company called the explosion a " major anomaly," and local authorities said it was a "catastrophic failure" during a routine static fire test.
SpaceX said no hazards remained for residents in the surrounding communities.
Context: Starship's seventh, eighth and ninth test flights failed in separate incidents earlier this year.
"We are trying to do something that is impossibly hard," Dan Huot, a SpaceX spokeperson, said during a webcast after a May explosion.
"You're not going to reach it in a it in a straight line," he added. "We've said there's going to be bumps, there's going to be turns."
State of play: The Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket, collectively referred to as Starship, is designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth's orbit, the moon, Mars and beyond.
SpaceX calls Starship"the world's most powerful launch vehicle ever developed." It's "capable of carrying up to 150 metric tonnes fully reusable and 250 metric tonnes expendable," per the company.
Eventually, the company hopes it will be able to carry up to 100 people on long-duration, interplanetary flights.
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