SpaceX: Starship rocket explodes!

The largest rocket ever launched into space, to date, exploded shortly after liftoff during a first test launch this morning at 8:33 a.m. local time from the Boca Chica, Texas launch pad.

SpaceX’s Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, briefly takes flight then explodes in midair on first launch attempt https://t.co/7fPWwnLKE0 pic.twitter.com/2yZpePHMJJ

— CNN (@CNN) April 20, 2023

Although the liftoff was initially successful, despite a delay of a few minutes, the craft exploded four minutes after liftoff as the rocket and first stage of the craft separated.

Although it is still a little early, a problem of reactor could be at the origin of this incident since 6 of the 33 reactors would not have been activated at the time of the launch, and this, even if the launch speed seemed good at the beginning.

It will therefore be impossible for SpaceX and Elon Musk to recover the first stage of the rocket, which is supposed to be reusable (an innovation in the aerospace field).

Elon Musk nevertheless congratulated the team on Twitter.

Congrats @SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship!

Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months. pic.twitter.com/gswdFut1dK

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2023

Starship was scheduled to launch last Monday (April 17), but had to be postponed due to a pressurization issue and a frozen valve.

Starship’s mission is to send humans to the Moon and Mars in the future.