On its maiden test flight without a pilot, the massive SpaceX Starship, which stands 152 metres high, blew up into a blaze shortly after takeoff.
The SpaceX Starship explodes after launch for a flight test from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on April 20, 2023. Picture: AFP
On its historic first test flight, Elon Musk’s enormous Starship, the largest and most potent rocket in the world, detonated in a magnificent explosion.
During the unmanned* first test flight of the spacecraft intended to transport passengers to the Moon and Mars, the 152m-tall SpaceX rocket exploded.
The launch and 2010 km/h flight speed were praised* as a successful first test flight despite the Starship capsule’s inability to separate from the first-stage rocket booster, which exploded about 29 km above Starbase in Texas.
SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk inside the control room watching the SpaceX Starship lifts off. Picture: SpaceX / AFP
“Congratulations to the @SpaceX team for an amazing Starship test launch! For the upcoming test launch, I’ve learned a lot,” Musk tweeted.
The explosion was described by SpaceX as a “rapid unscheduled disassembly before state separation.” The business tweeted, “As if the flight test wasn’t thrilling enough.
“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*,” said SpaceX in a tweet.
The “only hope” for the rocket’s initial launch, a SpaceX quality systems engineer continued, was to clear the launch tower.
For the first time since the Apollo programme came to an end in 1972, NASA has chosen the Starship spacecraft to transport men to the Moon in late 2025. This mission is known as Artemis III.
Members of the public walk through a debris field at the launch pad on April 22, 2023. The rocket successfully blasted and the Starship capsule had been scheduled to separate from the first-stage rocket booster three minutes into the flight but separation failed to occur and the rocket blew up.
Starship is made up of a 230 foot (70 m) tall first-stage Super Heavy booster rocket and a 50 metre tall spacecraft with room for crew and cargo.
However, the Starship spaceship and the Super Heavy rocket were being flown in tandem for the first time. In February, SpaceX successfully tested the 33 enormous Raptor engines on the first-stage booster.
Their combined performance was to be evaluated during the integrated test flight.
Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, had attempted to lower expectations for the inaugural* test flight and had forewarned of the possibility of technical difficulties prior to the launch.
It’s an extremely dangerous flight, he declared. It’s the maiden launch of a huge, intricate rocket.
There are countless possible outcomes for this rocket, according to Musk.
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