Setback for Elon Musk's dream Mars project

The Elon Musk-headed SpaceX's newest Starship exploded ahead of a routine engine test in Texas, leading to a complete loss of the aircraft and damage to the immediate area surrounding the stand, the company has said.

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The Starship is a two-stage fully reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by SpaceX as part of Elon Musk's dream to send humans to live on Mars. At 403 ft high, Starship is billed as the world's largest and most powerful rocket.

The incident took place on June 18 as the company was testing a Starship's upper stage at its site, Starbase situated in South Texas ahead of the megarocket's 10th flight test. In a social media post on X on Thursday, the US aerospace company Space X said that the incident took place around 11 pm (local time) on June 19. It said that the rocket was preparing for the 10th flight test when it "experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase" "A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for," SpaceX said.