A SpaceX Starship rocket erupted in flames during a ground test on Wednesday, marking the fourth consecutive failure for the spacecraft designed to return American astronauts to the moon.
The explosion adds pressure on Elon Musk, who recently stepped back from government duties to refocus on his companies. The test, part of NASA’s $4 billion contract with SpaceX, was intended to move Starship closer to its eventual lunar mission, scheduled for 2027.
Despite repeated mid-flight failures, SpaceX maintains that setbacks are part of its fast-paced design strategy. The company favors rapid testing over slower, traditional methods, arguing that learning through mistakes shortens development timelines and reduces costs.
Still, the highly visible blowup comes at a difficult moment for Musk. Tesla, another of his major ventures, is preparing to launch its driverless robotaxi fleet in Austin, but the rollout has drawn pushback from Texas lawmakers and remains limited in scale. Tesla’s share price also dipped this week before recovering slightly, after reports surfaced about temporary shutdowns at its Austin factory.
In Europe, Tesla sales are falling behind Chinese rival BYD for the first time, while Musk’s AI startup xAI is reportedly losing nearly $1 billion per month. Musk denied the figure, dismissing the report on his social media platform X.
He also publicly corrected xAI’s chatbot Grok after it posted a fact-check citing data on politically motivated violence. Musk called the statement “objectively false” and accused the bot of echoing “legacy media.”
Despite the challenges, Musk downplayed the Starship incident. “Just a scratch,” he wrote online, followed by memes and a tribute to the destroyed prototype: “RIP Ship 36.”
With timelines slipping and public scrutiny rising, Musk faces mounting questions about whether his companies can deliver on their biggest promises.
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