SpaceX's Starship, the world's biggest rocket, exploded on Thursday, minutes after it lifted off from Boca Chica, Texas.
"As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation," SpaceX said, adding that teams will continue to review data and work toward the next flight test.
SpaceX launched its next-generation Starship cruise vessel for the first time atop the company's powerful new Super Heavy rocket in an uncrewed test flight on Thursday. The two-stage rocketship, standing taller than the Statue of Liberty at 120 meters high, blasted off from the company's Starbase spaceport and test facility east of Brownsville, Texas, for what SpaceX hoped, at best, would be a 90-minute debut flight into space.
SpaceX's next-generation Starship spacecraft atop its powerful Super Heavy rocket lifts off from the company's Boca Chica launchpad on a brief uncrewed test flight near Brownsville, Texas, U.S. April 20, 2023 in a still image from video. /Reuters
A live SpaceX webcast of the lift-off showed the rocketship rising from the launch tower into the morning sky as the Super Heavy's raptor engines roared to life in a ball of flame and billowing clouds of exhaust and water vapor.
But less than four minutes into the flight, the upper-stage Starship failed to separate as designed from the lower-stage Super Heavy, and the combined vehicle was seen flipping end over end before exploding.
Nevertheless, SpaceX officials on the webcast cheered the feat of getting the fully integrated Starship and booster rocket off the ground for a clean launch and declared the brief episode a successful test flight. Elon Musk congratulated the SpaceX team on his Twitter account for "an exciting test launch of Starship." He said, "Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months."
(With input from Reuters)