Elon Musk responds with meme after massive explosion at SpaceX test facility

In preparation for its 10th test flight, SpaceX's newest Starship model has experienced a catastrophic failure, resulting in it exploding into a fireball on the launch pad at its Starbase site in South Texas on Wednesday night, June 18. The explosion occurred at about 11 pm, and SpaceX has confirmed that no personnel were injured during the event and everyone has been accounted for. Additionally, the Elon Musk-led company is now working to "safe the test site and immediate surrounding area in conjunction with local officials."

Moreover, residents living in the surrounding area are at no risk, according to SpaceX, with the company requesting that individuals do not attempt to approach the area while staff continue to make the area safe. So, what happened?

Firstly, Starship consists of two parts: Super Heavy, the first-stage rocket booster, and Ship, the second-stage cargo part of the rocket, otherwise known as just Ship. According to NASASpaceflight, which monitors Starship at Starbase regularly, the major anomaly that resulted in the explosion occurred right before Ship was set to perform a static-fire test, which is a routine pre-launch test that engages the engines for a short period of time to make sure everything is good to go for the actual launch.