SpaceX’s Starship – the biggest and most powerful space rocket ever developed – has exploded minutes after blasting off. The launch, which took place from SpaceX’s Starbase in the US state of Texas, came after a stuck valve forced a launch attempt on Monday to be aborted.
While Thursday’s launch saw the rocket leave the launch pad and ascend into the sky, the first and second stages of the launch vehicle failed to separate, ending the mission with a bang. The Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket – collectively referred to as Starship – both appeared to flip in the air a number of times before disappearing in a fireball over the ocean about four minutes after lift-off.
SpaceX tweeted: “As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation.” It added that lessons learned from the mission will help improve Starship’s reliability.
