Starship Explodes Way Before Its Mission

That wasn't supposed to happen…

Jun 22, 2025

In his ruthless pursuit of efficiency, Mr Musk has streamlined Starship to an unbelievable level. It no longer has to be launched into space to explode in a giant fireball or even fire up its engines on the launchpad. That was all just fraud and waste. Starship now explodes during fueling while on the static test fire pad. This simple change significantly reduces costs and saves a substantial amount of time. The launch pad doesn’t receive catastrophic damage, the giant Super Heavy booster isn’t needed, and the FAA doesn’t have to evacuate thousands of square miles of airspace or ground Starhip. With costs spiralling out of control and the Starship program lightyears behind its targets, hopefully, this genius move will keep SpaceX’s investors happy…

Okay, that was fun, but what actually happened?

At 11 PM Central Time on Wednesday, June 18th, Starship 36 was being loaded with its liquid methane and liquid oxygen propellant for an upcoming static fire of its rockets at the SpaceX facility in Massey when something went horribly wrong. The rocket had already test-fired one of its engines on the 16th, but this was for a full-bore fire of all six engines. These tests are to prepare Starship 37 for the upcoming tenth test flight, which some expect to be as soon as June 29th. But that date will now have to be pushed back because, during this refuelling, a catastrophic explosion destroyed Starship 37.

To say this was unexpected would be an understatement. The liquid methane fuel used by the Starship is widely considered one of the easiest to manage and safest rocket fuels available. This fuel is so damn safe that I have it pumped into my house, and I have driven cars powered by it. Yes, liquid oxygen is a totally different animal; that stuff is wildly dangerous in this setting. But SpaceX has been handling liquid oxygen for decades across more than 400 launches without an accident like this. SpaceX should be able to refuel a Starship easily, without mishap. In short, this is highly embarrassing for SpaceX, as it makes them appear incompetent, particularly when their rivals are using the far more challenging liquid hydrogen fuel without issue.

But it gets worse. Optimistic estimates suggest it costs SpaceX $100 million to build a Starship; other rough estimates place the cost at more like $177 million (read more here). Yes, SpaceX would almost certainly have lost this Starship during launch, but they would have gained valuable flight data, media coverage and investor satisfaction from it. Explosions before a full static fire like this mean SpaceX gets nothing for this enormous outlay. Which, as you will see in a minute, is a massive problem.

SpaceX does have a replacement Starship in Starship 37. But it isn’t finished. It has undergone cryogenic pressure tests, but no static fires have occurred yet. It will be weeks, possibly even months until it is ready to fly. The Starship program is already years behind schedule; it simply can’t afford delays like this. That is the truly damaging side of this incident.

Okay, so what actually happened?

We don’t know conclusively yet, but I have a theory.

SpaceX is almost certainly having to cut Starship costs. Why? The project has spiralled out of control in every sense.

SpaceX had raised $10 billion for the development of Starship. By early 2024, they had spent over $3 billion on facilities and more than $5 billion on research and development. Since then, there have been failed launch after failed launch. There has been extensive damage to the launch pad, necessitating its complete and damn expensive reconstruction. But worst of all, Starship needed a complete redesign. Initial plans only called for a single generation of Starship that would be mildly improved throughout a handful of test flights. But, after a catastrophic underperformance from the Raptor rocket engines and enormous challenges with the planned hypersonic “belly flop” reentry from space, the entire rocket has had to be totally redesigned. In late 2024, SpaceX announced a completely overhauled version of the Raptor engine, along with plans for a larger and significantly redesigned second-generation and third-generation Starship and Super Heavy Booster. This is obvious to accommodate more fuel to improve the tiny payload, thanks to the Raptor’s underperformance, and to enable Starship reentry that focuses more on retro-rockets than aerodynamic resistance, which destroyed all of the Gen 1 Starships during reentry.

All of this unexpected development, combined with the staggering cost of the nine test flights that haven’t yet met their basic mission targets, such as getting a small payload into LEO, will easily push their expenditure up to and past their $10 billion budget. To even get Starship into a semi-useable state will require building multiple of these new generations and many more test flights, which will take a considerable amount of cash.

Cash that SpaceX likely doesn’t have, as that $10 billion is starting to run dry.

The plan was for this pool to be topped up. Starlink was intended to fund Starship development, but it remains unprofitable and is unlikely to be profitable for a considerable time (read more here). And SpaceX itself has a relatively tiny annual profit (read more here), so it can’t shoulder the costs either.

Musk has been here before. In 2021, he sent out a memo claiming that the Raptor and Starship programs were in “crisis” due to delays and that this meant SpaceX faced a serious risk of bankruptcy. He solved that by raising a lot of investor funds shortly after. But, with Starship being such a public failure and his reputation in utter tatters, I don’t think Musk can whip up money for SpaceX and Starship like he used to be able to.

So, he is forced to take the other option. Cut costs. Take shortcuts. Run Starship on a shoestring budget and make whatever money is left last as long as possible. But you can’t do that with an operation as complex and risky as rocket launches. The tiniest mistake can have gargantuan and devastating impacts, which risk lives, cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and sever crucial client trust and public perception. And tiny mistakes become commonplace when cutting costs and cutting corners.

So, this is my theory: that this catastrophic explosion was caused by Musk cutting costs far too much because Starship development is going nowhere, its costs are spiralling out of control, and it still has a long way to go before it is even semi-usable.

No, this is just a theory. This explosion could have just been an honest mistake. They happen. But, with the context we have just gone over, this theory definitely isn’t improbable.

However, even if this theory is incorrect, the incident remains a significant setback for SpaceX. They are years behind schedule. Starship should have already been conducting Moon missions by now, yet it is still far from ready for even the most basic of operations. They literally can’t afford any more delays. None of these facts are disputable. So, this explosion is akin to SpaceX shooting itself in the foot with a bazooka.

Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to check out my YouTube channel for more from me, or Subscribe. Oh, and don’t forget to hit the share button below to get the word out!

Sources: Spaceflight Now, Space.com, NASDAQ, NPR, BI, Will Lockett, Next Spaceflight, WCCFTEC