SpaceX’s Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, exploded minutes after lifting off from a launchpad in South Texas. There were no people aboard the spacecraft.
It was an awe-inspiring scene as the most powerful rocket ever, the colossal 394 feet (120 meters) Starship, lifted off from the orbital launch mount at Starbase with the help of its 33 first-stage Raptor engines.
What happened? Despite its enormous weight, the shiny stainless-steel exterior of the Starship continued its ascent. But the climb was short-lived. The Starship’s upper stage, measuring 165 feet (50 m), was to separate from the Super Heavy first stage roughly three minutes after takeoff, but this never happened. The two vehicles remained connected and began to tumble, resulting in an explosion, or what SpaceX refers to as a “rapid unscheduled disassembly,” about four minutes after liftoff.
Starship: Pointy end down, flamey end up! pic.twitter.com/oy5qs2eNKL
— John Kraus (@johnkrausphotos) April 20, 2023
SpaceX said that the “vehicle experienced multiple engines out during the flight test, lost altitude, and began to tumble. The flight termination system was commanded on both the booster and ship.”
For SpaceX, failure means learning
SpaceX engineers still cheered the first flight test of a fully integrated Starship and Super Heavy and said that they will review the data collected as they work towards the next flight. “With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and we learned a tremendous amount about the vehicle and ground systems today that will help us improve on future flights of Starship,” the company said. The test “will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary.”
With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 20, 2023
The space company’s founder, Elon Musk, congratulated his team on an exciting test launch. He tweeted that the company “Learned a lot for next test launch” which is now expected after a few months.
Before the launch, Musk had lowered expectations, stating that Starship’s success in this test flight may require multiple attempts. During a Twitter Spaces session on Sunday, Musk said that his major concern would be if the Starship “fireball” and caused the launch pad to melt as such damage would take months to rebuild.
Starship explained
- Developed by SpaceX, the Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket are collectively called Starship.
- This fully reusable transportation system is designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
- It can enable the transport of up to 100 people to Mars or other distant destinations.
- With the ability to carry up to 150 metric tonnes fully reusable and 250 metric tonnes expendable, Starship will be the most powerful launch vehicle ever developed.
- Starship can also provide point-to-point transport on Earth, enabling travel to any part of the world in under one hour.
Starship is the largest, most capable rocket ever developed and will allow us to achieve a shared vision of a future where humanity is out exploring stars → https://t.co/gOrrujHxMO pic.twitter.com/pmrpmivsWZ
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 20, 2023
