SpaceX Starship test launch
(SpaceX)
Elon Musk's SpaceX on Thursday successfully launched its next-generation Starship cruise vessel for the first time atop the company's powerful new Super Heavy rocket in an uncrewed test flight that ended minutes later with the vehicle exploding in the sky.
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The two-stage rocketship, standing taller than the Statue of Liberty at 394 feet (120 m) high, blasted off from the company's Starbase spaceport and test facility east of Brownsville, Texas, for what SpaceX hoped, at best, would be a 90-minute debut flight into space.
A live SpaceX webcast of the lift-off showed the rocketship rising from the launch tower into the morning sky as the Super Heavy's raptor engines roared to life in a ball of flame and billowing clouds of exhaust and water vapor.
But less than four minutes into the flight, the upper-stage Starship failed to separate as designed from the lower-stage Super Heavy, and the combined vehicle was seen flipping end over end before exploding.
At three minutes after the launch, the expected separation the spaceship was to circumvent the earth and crash into the pacific after a vertical landing maneuver. The rocket was also planned to dive into the sea after a similar maneuver not far from the launch site.
Nevertheless, SpaceX officials on the webcast cheered the feat of getting the fully integrated Starship and booster rocket off the ground for a clean launch and declared the brief episode a successful test flight.
Throngs of spectators watched from a distance of several miles, from the Boca Chica Beach launch site, which was off-limits.
Texas
The company plans to use Starship to send people and cargo to the moon and, eventually, Mars. NASA has reserved a Starship for its next moonwalking team, and rich tourists are already booking lunar flybys.
It was the second launch attempt. Monday's try was scrapped by a frozen booster valve.
SpaceX principal integration engineer John Insprucker, serving as one of the webcast commentators, said the test flight would provide a wealth of important data paving the way for the company to move ahead with additional tests.
Musk, the founder and chief executive of SpaceX, said on Twitter that the next Starship test launch would be "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," he tweeted.