Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched its next-generation Starship space cruiser on Thursday for the first time atop the powerful new Super Heavy rocket booster, in a long-awaited uncrewed test flight that ended minutes later with an explosion in the sky.
The two-stage rocket, taller than the 400-foot Statue of Liberty, lifted off from the company’s Starbase spaceport and test center east of Brownsville, Texas, for what was to be a 90-minute flight and his space debut.
SpaceX broadcast the liftoff live on the internet, showing the rocket rising from the launch tower into the morning sky as the Super Heavy’s 33 raptor engines roared into a ball of flame and clouds of exhaust and water vapor. .
But less than four minutes into the flight, the Starship upper stage failed to separate from the Super Heavy lower stage as planned, and the combined vehicle was seen spinning on itself before exploding.
Despite this, SpaceX officials in the broadcast celebrated the feat of getting the fully integrated Starship and booster rocket off the ground without a hitch and called the brief test flight episode a success.
The first attempt to launch the integrated rocket was called off Monday after a fueling problem arose.
Both the Super Heavy and the Starship are designed as reusable components, capable of flying back to Earth for vertical landings, a maneuver that is already routine on SpaceX’s smaller Falcon 9 rocket, but neither would be recoverable on flight. Test this Thursday.
Starship cruise prototypes have made five subspace flights up to 10 kilometers above Earth in recent years, but the Super Heavy booster had never taken off.
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