The enormous Starship rocket from SpaceX, the most powerful ever built, took off on a crewless maiden flight on Thursday (20) and successfully flew for over two minutes before falling uncontrollably and exploding.
“The Starship just experienced what we call an unplanned rapid disassembly, or RUD, during ascent,” said SpaceX engineer John Insprucker, acting as launch commentator on the company’s webcast.
“Now, this was a development test, this was the first test flight of the Starship, and the goal is to gather data and, as we said, clear the pad and prepare to go again. So, you never know exactly what’s going to happen, but, as we promised, excitement is guaranteed! The starship gave us quite a spectacular ending to what was really an incredible test,” tweeted SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who monitored the launch from the SpaceX control center in Boca Chica, Texas: “Congratulations @SpaceX team on the thrilling test launch of the Starship! Learned a lot for the next launch test in a few months.”
The Thursday launch was the second attempt, after a countdown was canceled on Monday (17) due to a frozen valve.
During a Twitter Spaces call with subscribers on Sunday (16), Musk repeatedly downplayed expectations.
“The Starship is the largest rocket ever made,” he said. “It has more than double the thrust of a Saturn 5, the lunar Saturn 5 rocket, which is the largest rocket ever put into orbit, is roughly double the mass. So, we have 33 engines on the booster, we have six engines on the upper stage of the ship. That’s a lot of engines.
“So, I think I’d just like to lower expectations. If we get far enough away from the launch pad before something goes wrong, I think I’d consider that a success. Just don’t blow up the launch pad!”