WATCH the spectacular moment a SpaceX rocket bursts into a ball of flames during a routine test.
Elon Musk’s Starship 36 rocket was undergoing a static fire test at the test site in Texas when it erupted into flames on Wednesday night.
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Footage shows the rocket standing upright in the night with a small plume of smoking rising from its base.
The nose suddenly erupts with a searing white light and a ferocious column of flames and smoke.
A swirling fireball spills across the site as the rocket fuel combusts, clearing to show a blazing wreck where the space craft had been sitting.
Officials said the test suffered a catastrophic engineering failure, but that no one was injured.
Locals felt the shockwaves of the explosion, reporting that it rattled windows and dishes in their houses, according to Valley Central.
Fire crews rushed to the scene.
The Port Isabel local authority said that SpaceX “experienced a spacecraft anomaly during testing at its facility” and reassured residents it was monitoring the situation.
It noted that “possible impacts may be felt or heard” and shared a link for residents to report damage.
A static fire test is a pre-flight procedure where the engines are fired up for a few seconds with the rocket bolted to the ground.
The Starship 36 was not supposed to launch.
SpaceX has suspended all of its planned launches, and Elon Musk is yet to comment on the blunder.
It had been aiming for the next launch on June 29 – which would have marked the tenth test of the world’s most powerful rocket system.
This latest setback adds to a string of high-profile failures for Musks company in 2025.
In January, one of the rockets exploded mid-air minutes after lift-off.
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Footage showed glowing debris raining down from the sky after the 400ft behemoth failed after launching from Boca Chica, southern Texas.
Passenger jets were forced to swerve the red-hot and glowing remains.
It happened again in March, with a dazzling explosion that sent blazing debris streaking across the sky.
Engines on top of Starship began shutting down as it streaked eastward, and contact was lost.
That flight was meant to end with a controlled descent over the Indian Ocean.
And the Starship blew up for a third time in a row last month.
The bottom section slammed into the Gulf of Mexico and fiery debris rained down into the Indian Ocean.
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