SpaceX Starship blows up on launch attempt
April 20, 2023
SpaceX’s Starship – the largest and most powerful space rocket ever constructed – blew up shortly its after launch in Texas. No one was on board the rocket.
After a cancelled launch earlier this week because of a pressurisation issue, the Starship rocket system took off at 8.33am local time. It gathered speed but then started to spin at altitude before exploding some four minutes after leaving the ground.
“As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation,” SpaceX said in a statement on Twitter, in reference to the explosion.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk congratulated his team on an “exciting test launch” via Twitter – and said they would try again in a few months.