'Just a scratch': Elon Musk responds after SpaceX Starship explodes on Texas launch site
Around 11 p.m. local time Wednesday, "the Starship preparing for the tenth flight test experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase," SpaceX said in a post on X.
"A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for," the company said. "Our Starbase team is actively working to safe the test site and the immediate surrounding area in conjunction with local officials. There are no hazards to residents in surrounding communities, and we ask that individuals do not attempt to approach the area while safing operations continue.
The rocket's explosion was caught on camera by several livestreams of Starbase.
Cameron County Constable Precinct 1 shared a NASASpaceflight stream on his Facebook page.
"Whoa! Whoa! No," a man can be heard saying once the explosion happened. "Oh, my God."
The caption at the bottom of the stream read: "SpaceX is expected to perform a static fire test of ship 36. The second in this series of testing for flight 10."
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk appeared to shrug off the incident in a post on X Thursday morning.
"Just a scratch," he said.
Originally published as 'Just a scratch': Elon Musk responds after SpaceX Starship explodes on Texas launch site

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

News.com.au
a day ago
- News.com.au
Trump orders space regulations eased in win for Musk
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday easing regulations for the private space industry, including eliminating some environmental reviews, in a move likely to please his erstwhile advisor Elon Musk. The executive order, which said it aimed to "substantially" increase the number of space launches in the United States, was described by an environmental group as "reckless." Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has talked up several space missions including sending humans to the Moon and Mars. The Moon and Mars missions are planned to get a ride on the massive Starship rocket of Musk's private firm SpaceX. However, Starship has had a series of setbacks, with its latest routine test ending in a fiery explosion in June. SpaceX dominates the global launch market, with its various-sized rockets blasting off more than 130 times last year -- and that number looks set to rise after Trump's executive order. "It is the policy of the United States to enhance American greatness in space by enabling a competitive launch marketplace and substantially increasing commercial space launch cadence" by 2030, the order read. The change could well benefit Musk, who has long advocated for deregulation of the space industry. The world's richest man was previously a close advisor to Trump before the pair had a dramatic, public falling out in July. The executive order also called on Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy -- who was at the signing and is currently NASA's administrator -- "to eliminate or expedite the Department of Transportation's environmental reviews" for launches. SpaceX has been repeatedly criticized over the environmental impact at the sites where Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket in history, blasts off. The US-based nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity said Trump's new executive order "paves the way for the massive destruction of protected plants and animals." "This reckless order puts people and wildlife at risk from private companies launching giant rockets that often explode and wreak devastation on surrounding areas," the center's Jared Margolis said in a statement. Musk's dreams of colonizing Mars rely on the success of Starship, and SpaceX has been betting that its "fail fast, learn fast" ethos will eventually pay off. The Federal Aviation Administration approved an increase in annual Starship rocket launches from five to 25 in early May, stating that the increased frequency would not adversely affect the environment.

Sky News AU
4 days ago
- Sky News AU
SpaceX launch abandoned due to bad weather conditions
SpaceX has had another failed launch attempt after its mission was called off minutes before launch on Monday morning. The Falcon 9 rocket was due to take off from Cape Canaveral before it was called off due to bad weather conditions. Another launch has been scheduled for Tuesday.


Perth Now
07-08-2025
- Perth Now
Curtin University researchers make epic space discovery
Astronomers are paying the price for faster internet. A survey by Curtin University researchers has found emissions from satellites' onboard electronics are drowning out the faint radio waves astronomers use to study the universe. The researchers from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research focused on the Starlink service as it has the most satellites in orbit — more than 7000 at the time of the study. Starlink is a private satellite internet service launched by aerospace company SpaceX, which promises faster internet connections, particularly for rural and remote areas. The research team collected and analysed 76 million images of the sky using a prototype station for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which will be the world's largest and most sensitive radio telescope once fully built later this decade. PhD candidate and study lead Dylan Grigg said the team detected more than 112,000 radio emissions from 1806 Starlink satellites. 'Starlink is the most immediate and frequent source of potential interference for radio astronomy: it launched 477 satellites during this study's four-month data collection period alone,' Mr Grigg said. 'In some datasets, we found up to 30 per cent of our images showed interference from a Starlink satellite. 'Because they may come from components like onboard electronics and they're not part of an intentional signal, astronomers can't easily predict them or filter them out.' Study co-author John Curtin Distinguished Professor Steven Tingay said policies that regulated satellite technology needed to be updated. 'It is important to note that Starlink is not violating current regulations, so is doing nothing wrong. Discussions we have had with SpaceX on the topic have been constructive,' he said. Professor Tingay said satellite technology and radio astronomy were both important but needed to exist in harmony. The study's results were published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.