Another Starship blast sets back Musk's Mars hopes

What happened

SpaceX's massive Starship rocket exploded late Wednesday in a fireball that could be seen for miles. It was the latest in a series of setbacks for founder Elon Musk's hopes to send a mission to Mars as soon as next year and NASA's plans to fly astronauts back to the moon in 2027. SpaceX said nobody was killed in the "major anomaly," which occurred as the company was test-firing the upper-stage spacecraft at the company's South Texas Starbase before a planned 10th test flight of the world's largest and most powerful rocket.

Who said what

Musk is "making an enormous bet on Starship," but it is running behind schedule and has "suffered several setbacks," The Wall Street Journal said. During the last test flight in May, the Starship rocket "spun out of control about halfway through a flight without achieving some of its most important testing goals," Reuters said, even while "flying beyond the point of two previous explosive attempts earlier this year that sent debris streaking over Caribbean islands and forced dozens of airliners to divert course."

Boaters passing by Starbase on Thursday morning "shared video footage showing substantial damage to the test site," The New York Times said

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What next?

Musk and NASA are "eager" to get Starship flying, but the spacecraft "still has a long way to go" before carrying humans into space, The Washington Post said. "In addition to being able to fly without blowing up," it "needs to be able to refuel in orbit, an exceedingly difficult endeavor that's never before been accomplished," and "land autonomously" on the lunar surface.