In Texas, the largest rocket ever built exploded during a test flight launch attempt. SpaceX’s Starship was launched at 3:34 PM Dutch time, but exploded a few minutes later. There was no one on board.
Starship is a fully reusable transport system that can return to base after space travel. The rocket is 120 meters long.
The main objective was to take off from the launch table and then safely fly past the tower without blowing it up, which it succeeded. During take-off, 5 of the 33 main engines failed, which was also in line with expectations.
This footage shows the rocket exploding:
After passing the tower, it was already clear that the rocket was accelerating too slowly, because it lacked 15 percent thrust. Because the conditions for ejection were not met due to too little speed and too little height, the ejection did not take place. This was decided automatically by the on-board computer.
The main goal of this test flight was to collect as much data as possible, and that seems to have been achieved.
Elon Musk, the immensely wealthy owner of Tesla and Twitter, among others, wants to eventually fly around the moon with Starship. A Japanese billionaire probably paid millions for a seat on a future manned flight. SpaceX hopes that one day it will take 100 passengers to space at the same time.
“We learned a lot for the next test launch in a few months,” Musk writes Twitter.
The test flight as it should have been performed today:
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- Launch largest rocket ever blown off just before take-off
- First spaceflight for Starship is trial by fire for cosmic all-rounder
