7:08 AM PST · November 21, 2025 SpaceX rolled out an upgraded version of its Starship rocket booster in South Texas on Thursday to begin testing, and just a few hours later, something inside it exploded. Live streamers who watch SpaceX’s Starbase complex closely caught the explosion in the pre-dawn hours Friday, around 4:00 a.m. local time. Other creators in the area have since captured photos that offer a closer look at the damage. Unlike the more fireball-type explosions SpaceX has dealt with while developing its rockets in the past, this one appears to have blown out an entire side of the lower section of the booster — and left the rest of it standing. It also happened very early in the process. The booster didn’t even have rocket engines installed yet, according to Ars Technica. SpaceX said in a post on X that it was performing “gas system pressure testing” when the explosion happened. The company says no one was hurt, as the area was cleared for testing. “The teams need time to investigate before we are confident of the cause,” SpaceX wrote Friday. The booster was the first major piece of what SpaceX is referring to as Starship version three, or “V3.” Starship V3 is supposed to be larger, more powerful, more reliable, and capable of docking other Starships in orbit around the Earth — a crucial piece of SpaceX’s plan for getting to the Moon and Mars. (The company flew the final V2 design in October.) It’s not immediately clear what kind of impact the explosion could have on SpaceX’s next steps. But any significant delay to its testing program could put SpaceX’s overall plans at risk. Techcrunch event