SpaceX's latest Starship rocket prototype just exploded during an engine test

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Yet another one of SpaceX's Starship prototypes is toast. 

On Friday, SpaceX conducted the fifth test-firing of a Starship rocket at its private launch site in Boca Chica, Texas. The vehicle, called SN4, was the fourth version of what is eventually supposed to be SpaceX's pioneering and fully reusable spacecraft.

Elon Musk, the founder of the private rocket company, is pushing to rapidly develop the system to fly passengers around the moon in 2023, land NASA astronauts on the lunar surface around 2024, and — as an ultimate goal — establish cities on Mars in the 2030s.

The experimental vehicle exploded during an operation to test-fire its Raptor rocket engine on Friday afternoon. A fireball erupted from what appeared to be a fuel leak, causing the rocket to catastrophically explode.

An early prototype of SpaceX's Starship, called Mk 1.Loren Elliott/Getty Images

In nearby Boca Chica Village, where SpaceX has bought up most of the roughly 35 residences that once stood there, about a dozen homeowners remain. Celia Johnson, who has owned her home there since the early '90s, was inside during the test.

A sheriff turned on his siren to signal the beginning of the static fire, as is normally done before such tests begin in the area, and she tuned into to watch via a YouTube channel called LabPadre, which has cameras pointed at SpaceX's beachside launchpad.

"I heard the explosion before it showed up on the LabPadre camera. I heard all of my windows rattle, and then I heard something hit the house on the roof, like a big thud," Johnson told Business Insider. "It was a very loud boom. It's left me feeling stressed and a little deafened."

It does not appear anyone was hurt by the incident because of safety precautions taken before tests of this kind. Another homeowner in the village told Business Insider in a voicemail that the explosion "felt like an earthquake" but that "everything's OK" in the neighborhood.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It's a definite setback during what may otherwise be a big week for Musk and SpaceX.

This weekend, SpaceX is set to perform its second attempt to launch an historic space mission, called Demo-2. The test flight will attempt to send two astronauts to the International Space Station on a roughly 110-day mission. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft is slated to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 3:22 p.m. ET. If weather interferes, the next available launch window to reach the ISS would be Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.

The Falcon 9 rocket system, which was developed long before Starship, has completed dozens of successful missions, sending cargo and satellites to space. The Crew Dragon spaceship on top is experimental, though it completed an uncrewed test flight last year and an emergency escape test in January.

Here's what happened to the SN4 and the 3 rockets before it: