[imagesource: YouTube / NASASpaceflight]

Elon Musk had high hopes that SpaceX would be able to launch its fully stacked Starship rocket in July.

But those plans have basically melted away after the Starship Super Heavy booster 7 exploded during a recent ground test.

The prototype booster, with its 33 Raptor engines, will get a Starship second stage stacked on top, forming a fully stacked Starship rocket ready for the inaugural orbital launch.

As part of the preparations to send the Starship rocket up to space, the booster was undergoing tests at the company’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, when suddenly it went boom.

Gizmodo writes that the explosion “was as unexpected as it was severe”:

A static fire test was not expected today, and the launch pad had not been prepared or cleared for such a test (as far as we can tell).

Venting from directly beneath the booster increased dramatically in the moments prior to the explosion, which produced a powerful fireball and shock wave.

The company has not released any information about the cause of the event, but Musk has acknowledged that it was pretty bad:

Yeah, actually not good. Team is assessing damage.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2022

Not good is a bit of an understatement:

It’s likely that Booster 7 experienced some sort of damage during the explosion, whether it be to the dozens of Raptor engines or to the booster itself. Likely both. SpaceX will need to fix (or replace) the booster and determine the cause of the anomaly.

It’s also not clear if the incident damaged the launch mount, which is equipped with a pair of mechanical arms known as “chopsticks,” which lift and hold the booster in place.

Here’s more footage, including the sound of the explosion and various angles:

Well, if anything, Elon knows how to make things competitive:

pic.twitter.com/QvH41eC8go

— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) July 11, 2022

The JWST deep field image is referring to this, FYI.

[source:gizmodo]