--- title: "Elon Musk Tweets Vid of Starship Crumpling Up Like a Soda Can" description: "SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted a video showing a Starship prototype exploding in a massive cloud of gas, crumpling like a soda can." date: "2020-03-02" modified: "2020-03-13" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-tweets-video-starship-crumpling-soda-can" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Space" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" - "the digest" --- # Elon Musk Tweets Vid of Starship Crumpling Up Like a Soda Can ![Early Monday morning, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted a link to a video showing a Starship prototype exploding in a massive cloud of gas.]() *\Image: BocaChicaGal/NASASpaceFlight\* ## Total Carnage Early Monday morning, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk [tweeted]() a link to a video showing a [Starship]() prototype exploding in a massive cloud of gas at the company's testing facilities in Boca Chica, Texas. "So," Musk tweeted, "how was your night?" https://youtu.be/sYeVnGL7fgw ## Bug Fix The Starship in question, "Starship SN1," was an early prototype used by the space company to test out small design changes. "It’s fine, we’ll just buff it out," Musk joked in a [follow up tweet](). But considering that Musk is already talking about testing an "SN2" prototype, the explosion seems to be relatively inconsequential for the development of the Starship. "We’re stripping SN2 to bare minimum to test the thrust puck to dome weld under pressure, first with water, then at cryo," Musk wrote in a [Monday tweet](). "Hopefully, ready to test in a few days." ## Destination Mars The SpaceX teams at Boca Chica have been hard at work on a launch-worthy Starship spacecraft — a towering 400 foot colossus of stainless steel. The company is hoping to send the first iteration to an altitude of 22.5 km (74,000 feet) [as early as March]() according to filings with the Federal Communications Commission. Elon Musk has extremely ambitious plans in store for the spacecraft. First, he wants to visit the Moon, then Mars — and eventually establish an [entire Martian colony by 2050](), one million people strong, by sending thousands of Starships loaded with cargo and passengers to the Red Planet. **READ MORE:** [SpaceX: video shows Starship exploding in stunning Elon Musk-shared footage]() \[*Inverse*\] **More on Starship:** *[What in Tarnation Is This “SpaceX Village” by the Starship Launch Site]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()