Elon Musk explains why Starship exploded during its most recent test flight

Elon Musk has addressed the SpaceX team at an All-Hands meeting that was recently posted to the company's X account. During this meeting, Musk touches on why Starship exploded during its most recent orbital launch attempt.

Skip to 41:30 for Starship

Starship is SpaceX's crown jewel, with it being the biggest and most powerful rocket in the world and set to be the transportation method to occupy Mars. With 150 tons of payload capacity, Starship is the biggest flying object to ever have taken to the skies, but unfortunately, both orbital launch attempts ended in critical failure or boom.

While this may be disheartening to those who want to see the human race touch down on Mars, don't lose hope, as this is simply the process with rocket development, and with each flight, SpaceX has made milestone leaps forward toward the end goal of landing on the Red Planet. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk explains that Starship was launched twice last year, and between Flights 1 and 2, there were massive improvements across the board, from Starship's internal design to the flight pad.

Starship explosion during Flight 2

Notably, on its second orbital attempt it achieved stage separation between the booster and Starship, a monumental step forward in SpaceX's developmental process. Musk explains that Flight 2 almost made it to orbit, and its ending explosion was caused by its lack of payload. The SpaceX CEO further explains the reason it didn't make it to orbit was SpaceX venting the liquid oxygen, which led to a fire and then ultimately an explosion.

Musk said, "We normally wouldn't have that liquid oxygen if we had a payload. So, ironically, if it had a payload, it would have reached orbit."