SpaceX Starship rocket explodes after test launch

SpaceX launched the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built on Thursday.

Minutes after liftoff, however, the vessel exploded.

"As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation," SpaceX tweeted after the explosion.

SpaceX later said that the rocket was intentionally destroyed by its self-destruct system.

The company said that multiple engines were not firing as the rocket ascended, causing it to lose altitude.

SpaceX claims success despite explosion

SpaceX founder Elon Musk congratulated the SpaceX team for "an exciting test launch" and said on Twitter — the social media platform that he bought for $44 billion — that he had "learned a lot for next test launch in a few months."

This was the second liftoff attempt of the Starship spacecraft, after a first test flight was aborted on Monday due to an issue with a pressurization valve.

The spacecraft took off from Starbase, the SpaceX spaceport in Boca Chica, Texas. It was due to drop its first-stage Super Heavy booster into the Gulf of Mexico. The spacecraft was then to continue eastward to complete a near-circle of the Earth before splashing down near Hawaii.

The entire flight had been expected to last just 90 minutes.

"With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today's test will help us improve Starship's reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary," SpaceX tweeted.

Kate Tice, a SpaceX quality systems engineer, said that clearing the launchpad tower "had been our only hope."

Launch 'qualified success,' astrophysicist tells DW

Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told DW that he considered the rocket launch to be a "qualified success."

"I think it was a qualified success — this rocket is just a completely new design. It's a real departure from things that have been flown in the past," said McDowell.

According to McDowell, Starship's test flight proved several things, including Starship's ability to run on new methane fuel and fly through the roughest of turbulence.

"There are certainly some serious problems that they had, but this gives them something to focus on to fix for next time," said McDowell.

Unlike NASA and ESA flights, SpaceX has a more "cowboy approach" to space exploration, according to McDowell.

"The history of SpaceX has been that it's always taken them longer to make things work than they initially hope, but that they plug away at it, and they get there in the end," the astrophysicist said.

Starship will "completely revolutionize space launch" if successful, McDowell added. "If they can get it to work, they're going to dominate the industry," he said.

First human journey to the Moon since 1972

The 50-meter (164-foot) Starship spacecraft had been designed to carry crew and cargo and sits atop a 70-meter-tall first-stage booster rocket.

The spacecraft and rocket had never flown together, so the test flight had aimed to assess their performance in combination.

As part of the Artemis III mission, NASA has selected Starship to transport astronauts to the moon in late 2025, marking the first human journey there since the Apollo program concluded in 1972.

Compared to NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), which has been under development for over a decade, Starship is larger and more powerful, with the capability to lift more than 100 metric tons into orbit.

The primary objective of Starship is to make space travel more accessible and cost-effective.

Musk: It is 'possible' to become 'multi-planet species'

In the future, SpaceX intends to refuel the Starship spacecraft in orbit by using another Starship, allowing it to travel to Mars or beyond.

Ahead of the launch, billionaire Musk hailed what he described as a pivotal moment.

"We are at this brief moment in civilization where it is possible to become a multi-planet species," he said. "That's our goal. I think we've got a chance."

He has set his sights on making Starship reusable and bringing down the price per flight to a few million dollars.

ss,sdi/sms (AP, AFP, dpa)