SpaceX’s Starship 36 explodes in fiery disaster

SpaceX’s Starship 36 underwent a “catastrophic failure” as the craft exploded in a fiery disaster on the stand at its Texas launch site.

In a spectacle that has become tragically routine, SpaceX’s so-called “Starship 36” erupted into a fireball on June 18 during a routine test at the company’s Boca Chica, Texas, facility.

Eyewitnesses described a deafening explosion, sending plumes of toxic smoke billowing over the Gulf Coast as yet another multi-million-dollar prototype was reduced to scrap metal.

This latest “catastrophic failure,” as even SpaceX engineers reportedly called it, raises urgent questions about the breakneck pace—and staggering cost—of Elon Musk’s interplanetary ambitions.

Sources inside the company suggest the explosion occurred during a static fire test, a critical pre-launch check meant to ensure the rocket’s engines can handle the stresses of flight.

Instead, the towering spacecraft—intended to one day carry humans to Mars—disintegrated in seconds, showering debris across the launch complex and sparking fresh concerns about safety protocols at the increasingly chaotic facility.

Texas residents, long weary of SpaceX’s disruptive operations, reported feeling the blast miles away, with some comparing it to an earthquake.

Critics were quick to pounce.

“This isn’t innovation—it’s negligence,” said aerospace safety expert Dr. Laura Chen. “SpaceX is cutting corners, gambling with taxpayer dollars, and risking lives in the name of Musk’s ego-driven deadlines.”

Indeed, despite billions in NASA contracts and government subsidies, the Starship program has become synonymous with fiery setbacks, with multiple prototypes lost in similar explosions over the past three years.

Each failure underscores the brutal reality: Musk’s promises of colonizing Mars remain as distant as ever.

Meanwhile, SpaceX’s public relations machine spun the disaster as a “valuable learning experience,” a familiar refrain after every explosion.

With the clock ticking on NASA’s Artemis moon missions—which depend on Starship as a lunar lander—this failure may force a reckoning.

How many more explosions will it take before regulators step in? How much more money will vanish in smoke? And when will the American public demand accountability from a billionaire playing with rockets like toys?

One thing is certain: as the wreckage smolders in Texas, the future of SpaceX’s Starship looks less like a bold leap into the cosmos and more like a slow-motion crash back to Earth.