SpaceX's ongoing mission to prepare Starship spacecraft for trips to the moon and, eventually, Mars suffered a setback when a spacecraft exploded this week in South Texas. The explosion happened during what SpaceX called routine testing in preparation for Starship's 10th flight since 2023, which was expected to happen later this month.

Starship is being developed as a fully reusable transportation system. This means the rocket and spacecraft will be able to return to the ground for additional missions. In the coming years Starship is intended to carry cargo and humans to the moon and outside of earth’s orbit.

The most recent SpaceX Starship test launch ended in disaster again, with the rocket exploding shortly after takeoff. Here's what we known about the explosion.