The booster of the Super Heavy launch vehicle, which is part of the Starship spacecraft, exploded unexpectedly during tests at the spaceport in Boca Chica (Texas). As Gizmodo reports, SpaceX is currently preparing the spacecraft for its first orbital flight, which is due in July, but this explosion could change plans significantly..

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The explosion occurred on the morning of July 12, while there is no information about the cause of the incident and the victims. The explosion was followed by a fire, fire and smoke were visible in the area of \u200b\u200b\u200b\u200bthe cosmodrome for another hour after the incident.

The publication notes that fire tests were not scheduled for this day, the launch pad was not prepared for them.. In the moments before the explosion, the ventilation directly under the rocket increased, causing a fireball to form..

It is assumed that as a result of the explosion, both the accelerator itself and the Raptor engines installed on it could have been damaged.. In the future, SpaceX will need to replace the booster, as well as find out the cause of the explosion.. It is also unknown if the incident will affect plans to make the first Starship orbital flight this month..

Starship is being developed as a ship to deliver cargo and people to the Moon, Mars and other deep space objects.. NASA has already signed a contract with the company to deliver people to the moon with it as part of the Artemis program..

The vehicle consists of two fully reusable elements: a first-stage booster called Super Heavy and a 50-meter-tall spacecraft known as Starship.. Both will be powered by SpaceX's next-generation Raptor engine - six for Starship and about 30 for Super Heavy..

On the night of May 6 last year, SpaceX successfully conducted a test flight of the Starship prototype. The ship repeated the testing program for Starship prototypes SN8 and SN9, which crashed on landing after a suborbital flight, as well as SN10, which exploded seven minutes after a successful landing due to damage received..