Rocket booster bursts into flames at SpaceX plant during test firing
The HinduA booster rocket developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX for its next-generation Starship spacecraft burst into flames during a ground-test firing on Monday in Texas, dealing a likely setback to Musk’s aim of launching Starship to orbit later this year. The failure occurred in the midst of a days long static fire test campaign in Boca Chica, Texas, of the booster, which is equipped with an array of 33 Raptor engines for use in an upcoming uncrewed orbital test flight SpaceX was hoping to conduct later this year. SpaceX’s complete Starship, which will stand 394 feet tall when mated with its super-heavy first-stage booster, is the company’s next-generation launch vehicle at the center of Musk’s ambitions to make human space travel more affordable and routine. In late 2020 and early 2021, SpaceX lost four prototypes of the Starship itself in a series of high-altitude test launches in which the return landing attempts ended in explosions.