While many businesses in Texas are shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic, SpaceX has been busy assembling the latest Starship prototype at its Boca Chica development facility. Don't rule out a few more RUDs along the way. The event was captured by Tim Dodd, a YouTuber that goes by the name "Everyday Astronaut": SpaceX was expected to do great things with "SN4." Reddit user "DiskOperatingSystem_" wrote that their "jaw is on the floor," while user "rustybeancake" shared a fun comment template to be used at times like these: RUD, of course, refers to Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly. The Starship SN4 prototype exploded at about 1:49 p.m. CDT (2:49 p.m. EDT/1849 GMT) at SpaceX's test facility near Boca Chica, Texas according to a video provided by the South Padre Island tourism site SPadre.com. It will be SpaceX's first human spaceflight, and the first orbital crewed launch from the United States since NASA's space shuttle fleet retired in July 2011. The explosion took place at the Boca Chica facility in Texas, where it's developing a rocket that can send humans to Mars and beyond. The early version of Elon Musk's Mars rocket has the serial number SN4, and he shared a photo of it standing tall on the test stand Thursday. News SpaceX Starship rocket catches fire during third Raptor engine test SpaceX appears to have successful fired up Starship SN4 for the third time, albeit not before a … That same day, SpaceX received a launch license for its Starship tests from the Federal Aviation Administration. The explosion occurs at the 1:49 p.m. timestamp in the video. However, SpaceX had also been planning to install three Raptor engines and a nosecone on Starship SN5 as opposed to the single-engine and no nosecone on SN4. The conversation around far more pressing issues meant that not only did "SN4" receive little coverage, but SpaceX coverage, on the whole, was minimized. Footage of the NASA astronauts ringing the Nasdaq's opening bell on Tuesday, the same day as activists encouraged people to mark "Blackout Tuesday," was criticized by Twitter users as "tone deaf.". For a limited time, you can take out a digital subscription to any of our best-selling science magazines for just $2.38 per month, or 45% off the standard price for the first three months.View Deal, Like us on Facebook to see similar stories. These systems need to be able to disconnect and reconnect to the Starship when needed. You can see another view of the explosion in the video below from NASASpaceflight.com. CNBC reported that SpaceX was able to raise $346 million in its most recent funding round. The ship was affectionately dubbed by Musk as "R2D2's dad.". A successful launch for "SN4" would have cleared the way for SpaceX to focus on more ambitious tests, like a 20-kilometer jump. This was the first time SpaceX had launched a human, and the first time in nearly a decade American astronauts had entered space from the United States. The killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis officer sparked widespread protests against police brutality and the endemic racism within police forces. The mission marked the end of a six-year journey from NASA choosing SpaceX and Boeing to develop a capsule that could send its astronauts into space. Starship SN4 became SpaceX’s first full-scale Starship prototype to pass a cryogenic proof test on Sunday evening at SpaceX’s launch site in Boca Chica, Texas. That could devastate the economy and their lives. That would have enabled the team to focus on planning for next stages, like sending Japanese billionaire Yusaky Maezawa around the moon by 2023.