The company said the Starship “experienced a major anomaly” about 11pm on Wednesday (2pm Thursday AEST) while on the test stand preparing for the tenth flight test at Starbase, SpaceX’s launch site at the southern tip of Texas.

“A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for,” SpaceX said in a statement on the social platform X.

It marked the latest in a series of incidents involving Starship rockets. On January 16, one of the massive rockets broke apart in what the company called a “rapid unscheduled disassembly”, sending trails of flaming debris near the Caribbean.

Two months later, Space X lost contact with another Starship during a March 6 test flight as the spacecraft broke apart, with wreckage seen streaming over Florida.

Following the back-to-back explosions, one of the 123-metew Starship rockets, launched from the southern tip of Texas, tumbled out of control and broke apart on March 27.

SpaceX had hoped to release a series of mock satellites following liftoff, but that got nixed because the door failed to open all the way. Then the spacecraft began spinning and made an uncontrolled landing in the Indian Ocean.

At the time, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk called the launch “a big improvement” from the two previous demos and promised a much faster launch pace moving forward, with a Starship soaring every three to four weeks for the next three flights.

SpaceX said Wednesday night’s explosion posed no hazards to nearby communities. It asked people not to try to approach the site.

The company said it is working with local officials to respond to the explosion.