By The FirstIn a much-anticipated maiden voyage, SpaceX’s Starship rocket, the most powerful rocket ever built, took off without any human crew from the company’s facilities in South Texas on Thursday. The rocket was on a test flight that would pave the way for future missions with human crew onboard. However, the flight only lasted for a few minutes before it crashed and exploded.
Watch the dramatic video below:
SpaceX confirmed that the rocket had experienced multiple engine failures during the flight and started tumbling, losing altitude before the flight termination system was activated. In a statement released after the incident, SpaceX said, “The vehicle experienced multiple engines out during the flight test, lost altitude and began to tumble. The flight termination system was commanded on both the booster and ship.”
SpaceX’s broadcasters described the event as a “rapid unscheduled disassembly”…a fancy way of saying it exploded. Founder Elon Musk later took to Twitter to express his thoughts on the incident. He stated that the company had learned a lot and that they are looking forward to the next test launch in a few months.
The Starship rocket is designed to be the company’s primary vehicle for deep-space missions, with its powerful engines capable of carrying both cargo and humans to the moon and beyond. The company had previously revealed plans to use Starship for a variety of missions, including trips to Mars.
