Elon Musk's SpaceX tried once again to launch its new mega-rocket, Starship, for a test flight but it dramatically exploded after reaching space for the first time.
The rocket ship reached space following lift-off from south Texas on Saturday morning before communication was suddenly lost. The Starship successfully separated from the Super Heavy booster shortly after taking off but problems soon arose.
The Super Heavy booster unexpectedly blew up and disassembled in the air. Footage captured the dramatic moment the booster exploded, with SpaceX saying on its livestream moments later that it had lost contact with Starship. After a while, the company confirmed it had been forced to trigger Starship's self-destruct feature over the Gulf of Mexico.
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It was the second test flight and lasted approximately eight minutes, about twice as long as the first test in April, which also ended in an explosion. Today, SpaceX's Starship went further and higher than the maiden launch, but some of the technical problems persisted, including contact being lost with the upper stage of the ship eight minutes in and the booster exploding.
But SpaceX will no doubt hail this as another win, with the big problems that affected April's maiden flight being overcome and the ship reaching 140km up and into space, after a clean getaway with all the first-stage booster engines working on the way up, with the ship separating at two minutes and 40 seconds.
At nearly 400ft (121 metres), Starship is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, with the goal of ferrying people to the Moon and Mars.
“The real topping on the cake today, that successful lift-off,” said SpaceX commentator John Insprucker, noting that all 33 booster engines fired as designed, unlike last time. The booster also separated seamlessly from the spaceship, which reached an altitude of 92 miles. Commentator Kate Tice said: “We got so much data, and that will all help us to improve for our next flight.”
SpaceX founder Elon Musk watched from behind launch controllers at the southern tip of Texas near the Mexico border, near Boca Chica Beach. At company headquarters in Hawthorne, California, employees cheered as Starship soared at daybreak.
"Magnificent Machine with a 1000ft plume," Mr Musk said on X, formerly Twitter, following the launch. After Saturday’s launch, the FAA said no injuries or public damage had been reported and that an investigation was underway to determine what went wrong. SpaceX cannot launch another Starship until the review is complete and corrections made, the FAA added.
Nasa is counting on Starship to land astronauts on the Moon by the end of 2025 or shortly thereafter. The space agency awarded SpaceX a $3 billion contract to make it happen, by transferring astronauts from its Orion capsule to Starship in lunar orbit before heading down to the surface.
“Today’s test is an opportunity to learn – then fly again,” said Nasa administrator Bill Nelson via X, formerly Twitter. Starship is 34ft (10 metres) taller than Nasa ’s Saturn V rocket which carried men to the Moon more than half a century ago, and 75ft (23 metres) taller than Nasa’s Space Launch System rocket that flew around the Moon and back, without a crew, last year.
Like before, nothing of value was aboard Starship for the trial run. Once Starship is proven, Mr Musk plans to use the fully reusable mega rockets to launch satellites into orbit around Earth and equipment and people to the Moon and, eventually, to Mars.
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