SpaceX launched the largest and most powerful rocket in history Thursday morning from southern Texas.
The sight of this majestic object flying in the sky was truly an awe-inspiring experience to witness.
The rocket, however exploded a few moments later. As Fox News reported, SpaceX live stream hosts described this as a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”
The immediate cause of the explosion remains unknown.
WATCH:
Fox News has more on the launch and background:
It marked the first launch of the Starship’s two sections together and comes after the first attempt was scrubbed on Monday due to a problem that occurred during fueling.
A stuck valve needed to pressurize the first-stage booster forced the team to scrap the launch.
While Starship is designed to be fully reusable, none of the nearly 400-foot-tall rocket will be recovered.
If the flight went as planned, the first-stage booster, or the Super Heavy, will drop into the Gulf of Mexico. This is the inaugural Super Heavy flight. The spacecraft on top will pass over the Atlantic before coming down near Hawaii.
The flight was expected to last for just an hour and a half.
Musk estimates that there is an 80% chance that one of the fleets of Starships under construction will reach orbit by the end of the year. He expects that it will take a couple of years to achieve full and rapid reusability.
The Federal Aviation Administration awarded SpaceX a launch license last Friday. The license is valid for five years.
The agency’s decision was criticized by the American Bird Conservancy, which blasted the company’s operations for allegedly damaging important coastal bird habitats, showing a picture of a plover next to debris in Boca Chica.
“Space X operations continue to damage important coastal bird habitats at Boca Chica in south Texas,” Mike Parr, the president of the American Bird Conservancy, said in a statement. “We believe that Cape Canaveral offers a much lower environmental impact option, and is underutilized with less than one launch per month currently despite having six active launch pads and more pads that could be made available.”
Elon Musk tweeted his congratulations to the Space X team after the launch and said that he “learned a lot” from today.
He also said there would be another test launch 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. pic.twitter.com/gswdFut1dK
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2023
