SpaceX’s Starship rocket explodes after latest test flight
This morning, SpaceX’s 394-foot-tall Starship – the world’s most powerful rocket! – completed its latest test flight, ending explosively around 9:30 am.
Starship lifted off from its launch pad in south Texas, successfully clearing the launch tower before exploding, in what SpaceX engineers refer to as a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.” Despite this, the test was still a success as it provided SpaceX with a plethora of data on how to improve the design moving forward.
Starship is designed to be launched with two rockets, or stages, that are used together to launch it into space. A first stage lift rocket is used to begin the initial ascent before separating and leaving the main stage to carry out the rest of the flight. This test was the first time both stages were launched together, and the explosion of the rocket was caused when the first stage was unable to separate from the main stage successfully.
While this test did not have any humans or cargo onboard, Starship is intended to eventually carry humans and cargo to the moon and, beyond that, to Mars. More test flights for Starship are planned for the near future.
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