A SpaceX test stand at the company’s McGregor, Texas facility caught fire during its tests. Raptor 2 engines in the afternoon of May 23rd. Therefore NASAS space flight, the engine had an anomaly that caused a leak of vapors and a secondary explosion. Live coverage by the news organization showed the engine shutting down before the fire started, engulfing the stand in flames and smoke.
SpaceX uses Raptor engines for its Starship system’s Super Heavy booster and upper stage spacecraft. They use liquid methane and liquid oxygen as fuel, and they are designed to be powerful enough to send Starships to the Moon and Mars. whom Gizmodo It suggests that gases mixing due to a leak or similar anomaly may have caused the explosion, although SpaceX has not yet officially disclosed what happened during the test.
The company is currently preparing for Starship’s fourth test flight, which is scheduled to take place on June 5, barring bad weather or other factors that could delay the launch, subject to regulatory approval. This explosion will likely not affect the launch window. SpaceX’s primary goals for the fourth test flight are to gently bounce the Super Heavy booster over the Gulf of Mexico and achieve a controlled entry of the Starship spacecraft. The company said it made a number of hardware and software improvements to incorporate what it learned from it third flight test. The starship’s upper stage reached space during that flight, but it burned upon re-entry into the atmosphere, its Super Heavy booster disintegrated in the final stages of its descent instead of splashing gently into the ocean.
