On the evening of June 18, SpaceX was performing a routine six-engine static fire test of Ship 36 at its Massey’s Test Site near Starbase, Texas. Just after 11 PM CDT, while propellant was being loaded onto the vehicle, a sudden energetic anomaly resulted in the loss of Ship 36 and significant damage to the test facility.
The anomaly comes just days after Ship 36 successfully performed a single-engine static fire test to simulate the in-flight relight of a Raptor engine. Ship 36 was intended to fly on the 10th test flight of Starship and Super Heavy, which was expected to occur as soon as the end of next week and break the flight turnaround record, had the six-engine static fire been performed successfully.