SpaceX prototype starship ejects super-hot debris, causing literal dumpster fire

SpaceX conducted a static fire test of a prototype Starship rocket on Thursday, which used all six Raptor engines. The eight seconds The test appeared to be going well, apart from the troubled brush fire that followed.

The Starship prototype 24 is currently being tested at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas. SpaceX is preparing the upper stage for an upcoming orbital test of the fully integrated Starship system. At yesterday’s static fire test just after 5:30 p.m. ETthe created six Raptor engines a monstrous roar and kicked up an enormous amount of smoke and dust. According to the material done and the Starship launch pad reappearedit became clear that several lawns in the area were burning.

Video the scene when caught by NASASpaceflight (the static fire test starts at 5:35:00 in the video above), showed unusually high fire near the missile and wider angles showed bushfires several hundred feet from the stands. Superheated debris from the test even reached a SpaceX dumpster, setting its contents on fire. according to to Teslarati. The fires, which affected a sheltered habitat, required firefighters to arrive and fight the blazes.

A previous test on August 9 saw only two of the Raptor engines of the prototype 24 put into action what was a muted version of Thursday’s comprehensive test. The day before, on the 8th of August, SpaceX conducted a limited static fire test of a prototype Starship booster, bringing the Company closer to an actual orbital launch. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk envisions the fully stacked two-stage Starship rocket as a platform for carrying people and cargo Orbit, Moon and Mars.

Teslarati estimates Thursday’s six-engine test produced 1,380 tons of thrust. the most ever for a test conducted on Starbase. And at eight secondsit was also one of the longest static fire tests conducted on a Starship test bed.

However, with great power comes great responsibility, and SpaceX is not up to that challenge; The company, as Teslarati points out, is clearly not taking the necessary precautions to prevent this from happening Fire near the launch pad and instead relies on an inadequate spray nozzle and high-temperature concrete:

Most likely eight long seconds of blast furnace conditions melted the top layer of surrounding concrete and shot a hailstorm of tiny superheated globules in almost every direction. In fact, in almost every direction there was something that could easily burn, a fire started. In several locations to the south and west, shrubbery caught fire and began to burn unusually aggressively, quickly growing into walls of flame that raged across the site. To the east, debris even made its way into a SpaceX dumpster, the contents of which easily caught fire and burned for hours.

Finally round [10:00 p.m. EDT], firefighters were able to approach the secured launch pad and missile, but the main fire had already spread southward out of range. Instead, they began controlled burns near SpaceX’s roadblock in hopes of clearing the scrub and preventing the fire from spreading (though unlikely) to SpaceX’s starbase factory and the homes and residents of Boca Chica Village.

More serious precautions like a water flooding system would likely prevent something like this from happening. Instead, the tremendous power, heat, and burn length annihilates the concrete beneath the rocket, resulting in the dispersal of superheated debris.

Firefighters had no problem putting out the blazes, but the fires impacted an environmentally sensitive area home threatened wildlife. In June, the Federal Aviation Administration has completed its environmental impact assessment for SpaceX’s proposed site expansion at Boca Chica and said the company could go ahead with its plans but had to finalize it 75 environmental protection measures.

Of these measures, SpaceX must implement forest fire prevention measures and also use water spray to suppress dust and air pollution. Given what happened yesterday, these obviously unchecked items remain on SpaceX’s to-do list. Not cool Elon. Not cool.

More: SpaceX signs deal with NASA to offer 5 more crewed trips to the ISS.