Those following SpaceX and their ongoing Starship development program may have noticed that the next Starship just blue up.
Starship 36 was due to launch around June 29th on the 10th test flight. However, during a static fire at the test site it had a RUD (Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly) - it blew up in spectacular fashion.
While it might have been a sight to see, it was a highly unexpected event, not only loosing the ship but also causing wide spread damage to the test site.
Initial indications point to one of the Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels (COPV) exploding, which has not happened before, and thus was so unexpected.
Many are worried this puts at risk the Starship Mars mission at the end of 2026, and this is a valid concern.
However, in the big scheme of things, with SpaceX's ability to rapidly produce more ships and repair the test sight it may no be as bad as it seems.
The key will be if they can have a successful flight 10 with the next Starship, and soon. If this goes well, then the program still has a reasonable change of making the 2026 launch date.
For more details on what happened, the following video is helpful.
