SpaceX rocket launches, then explodes minutes later, on first test flight

[BabyBlade]

BOCA CHICA, TEXAS - Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Thursday launched its next-generation Starship cruise vessel for the first time atop the company’s powerful new Super Heavy rocket, but the uncrewed test flight ended minutes later with the vehicle exploding in the sky.

While the two-stage rocket ship failed to make it beyond an altitude of 32km, SpaceX officials cheered the outcome for achieving the test flight’s primary objective of getting the new spacecraft off the ground in what appeared to be an otherwise clean lift-off.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) chief Bill Nelson tweeted: “Congrats to @SpaceX on Starship’s first integrated flight test! Every great achievement throughout history has demanded some level of calculated risk, because with great risk, comes great reward. Looking forward to all that SpaceX learns, to the next flight test – and beyond.”

The two-stage rocket ship, standing taller than the Statue of Liberty at 120m, blasted off from the company’s Starbase spaceport east of Brownsville, Texas, for what SpaceX hoped, at best, would be a 90-minute debut flight into space but just shy of Earth’s orbit.

A live SpaceX webcast of the lift-off showed the rocket ship rising from the Gulf Coast launch tower into the morning sky over the southern tip of Texas as the Super Heavy’s Raptor engines roared to life in a ball of flames and billowing clouds of exhaust and water vapour.

But less than four minutes into the flight, the upper-stage Starship failed to separate from the lower-stage Super Heavy as designed, and the combined vehicle was seen tumbling end over end before exploding.

The spacecraft reached a peak altitude of nearly 32km before its fiery disintegration.

A senior Federal Aviation Administration source said the spacecraft’s automated flight-termination appears likely to have been activated, triggering the rocket’s disintegration.

Nevertheless, SpaceX officials on the webcast hailed the feat of getting the Starship and booster rocket off the launch pad for the first time, declaring the brief episode in that sense to be a successful test flight.

A throng of SpaceX workers shown during the webcast, who were watching a live stream together at the company’s headquarters near Los Angeles, cheered wildly as the rocket cleared the launch tower, and again when it blew up in the sky.

SpaceX principal integration engineer John Insprucker, serving as one of the webcast commenters, said the test flight would provide a wealth of important data, paving the way for the company to move ahead with additional tests.

Mr Musk, founder, chief executive and chief engineer of SpaceX, said on Twitter that the next Starship test launch would be “in a few months”.

“Congrats @SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship! Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months,” he tweeted. Mr Musk, who purchased Twitter in 2022 for US$44 billion (S$59 billion), is also CEO of electric carmaker Tesla.

Beyond the launch itself, the test mission fell short of reaching several other objectives, such as deploying the Starship vessel into space and re-entering Earth’s atmosphere 97km off a Hawaiian coast at hypersonic speeds, where it would have faced key aerodynamic forces and blazing heat before plunging into the Pacific.

Still, getting the newly combined Starship and booster rocket off the ground for the first time represented a key milestone in SpaceX’s ambition of sending astronauts back to the Moon and ultimately on to Mars, as a major partner in Nasa’s newly inaugurated human spaceflight programme, Artemis. REUTERS

[ER-3682]

Elon Musk should take a Ride in it.

[Thaiyotakamli]

Still want fetch passenger to space lol

[RadX]

On 4/21/2023 at 8:31 AM, Thaiyotakamli said:

Still want fetch passenger to space lol

@Jamesc asking for a dear relative

[Volvobrick]

On 4/21/2023 at 8:35 AM, RadX said:

@Jamesc asking for a dear relative

He will promise his beloved for her to ride a Tesla car.

 

The one strapped to the rocket. 

[kobayashiGT]

If the first time he shoot a rocket and it succeeded, He is an alien liao. hahaha

Failure is the road to success. 
 

Keep on ka-boom. 

[Fitvip]

On 4/21/2023 at 8:31 AM, Thaiyotakamli said:

Still want fetch passenger to space lol

Jamesc might be interested!

[Fitvip]

I remember one of the Space Shuttles also exploded on launching killing all the astronauts!

 

https://www.space.com/31760-space-shuttle-challenger-disaster-30-years.html

Edited April 21, 2023 by Fitvip

[Thaiyotakamli]

On 4/21/2023 at 8:35 AM, RadX said:

@Jamesc asking for a dear relative

One way ticket

 

https://youtu.be/g_jUtiKSf1Y

[Jman888]

lucky they didn't put monkey on it to test  

[Beregond]

Spacex start off with alot of fail test. But now see how successfull spacex is.

[Shibadog]

entrepreneurial mindset is truly rare in SG. 

and the people that lack it laugh and mock u when u don't have immediate success.

 

[Jman888]

On 4/21/2023 at 11:02 AM, Shibadog said:

entrepreneurial mindset is truly rare in SG. 

and the people that lack it laugh and mock u when u don't have immediate success.

 

you can have many failures behind closed door, but you cannot launch a spaceship in a room 

[Stary]

I think the kaboom is part and parcel of the test la.  Why the media go sensationalise the explosion part when the lift off part was successful? The Starship is a new kind of rocket so the kaboom is part of the experiment la.

Classic example of news being blown out of context. 

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Starry

[Lala81]

On 4/21/2023 at 11:02 AM, Shibadog said:

entrepreneurial mindset is truly rare in SG. 

and the people that lack it laugh and mock u when u don't have immediate success.

 

Don't think anyone is really mocking it. Media just nothing better to report. 
As opposed to what he's doing at twitter. 

Takes a lot of explosions before rockets can work with any reliability issue.

 

[Lala81]

On 4/21/2023 at 11:06 AM, Jman888 said:

you can have many failures behind closed door, but you cannot launch a spaceship in a room 

yeah if u watch the space-x documentary. It's a lot of failed launches before it finally worked. But most of it happened before TSLA became a household name. So not so much focus on Musk.

 

[mersaylee]

Many soundbites on media said it's a success...their only aim was to successfully launch it and avoid hitting anything...anything else is a bonus...self detonated explosion in mid air oredi a huge achievement...😂

[Voodooman]

Not mocking SpaceX but kinda strange to self congratulate and "cheered wildly as the rocket cleared the launch tower, and again when it blew up in the sky.". 

Maybe that is why US is leading the world in space technology. 

失败是成功之母.