Elon Musk’s SpaceX company’s new rocket Starship explodes on its first flight.
No one was hurt in the unmanned test that took off off the east coast of Texas on Thursday morning local time.
After two to three minutes in flight, the rocket – the largest ever produced – began to fall out of control and was soon destroyed by the ship’s charges.
Mr Musk has said his company will try again in a few months.
SpaceX engineers still rate Thursday’s mission as a success. They like to “test early and often” and aren’t afraid to break things. They must have collected a lot of data to work towards the next flight. A second starship is almost ready to take off.
“Congratulations to the @SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship! Learned a lot for the next test launch in a few months,” Mr Musk tweeted.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses rocket launches in the US, said it would oversee the investigation into the crash. A spokesman said it was standard practice when a vehicle was lost in flight.
The entrepreneur had tried to control expectations ahead of the launch. Just getting the vehicle off the ground and not destroying the launch pad’s infrastructure would be considered a “victory,” he said.
His wish was fulfilled. Starship cleared its launch complex on the US-Mexico border and accelerated as it headed over the Gulf of Mexico. But it was clear within a minute or so that all was not going to plan.
As the rocket ascended, six of the 33 engines on the base of the vehicle could be seen to shut down or burst into flames.
And three minutes into the flight, it was pretty clear the end was near. While the two parts of the car were supposed to be separated, they were actually still connected – and moving out of the way.
At launch plus four minutes, as the starship was losing altitude, a large explosion ripped through the blue sky, causing the computers to activate the vehicle’s Flight Termination System (FTS).
“With tests like this, success comes from what we learn, and we’ve learned a lot about the vehicle and ground systems today that will help us on future Starship flights,” SpaceX said in a statement. It will help me improve.”
