Midair explosion rocks SpaceX's first launch of Starship

Onur Demirkol
Apr 20, 2023
Updated • Apr 20, 2023
Misc
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Today, SpaceX launched Starship after a failed try two days ago. Even though the launch was successful, the rocket failed to reach orbit and exploded minutes after the lift-off.

After fixing the issue from earlier this week, engineers got the rocket ready after loading the propellant and checking all the other necessities. The countdown reached 0, and all 33 engines of Super Heavy Booster ignited, and the engineers rapidly fixed a couple more issues before the launch. Starship took off and exploded in midair on its first launch attempt. "Starship just experienced what we call a rapid unplanned disassembly," an official said on the broadcast.

Despite the explosion, SpaceX took this launch attempt as a success as they are now getting ready for a second attempt, and engineers have a couple more months to fix all the issues and work on improvements.

SpaceX is preparing for a second launch in a couple of months

Starship's mission is still alive, and engineers at SpaceX are actually closer to it than they were yesterday. After seeing today's results, they will work on certain aspects to have a better launch next time. "Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months," said Elon Musk in his tweet.

The company delayed the launch multiple times in the past couple of months. It was originally scheduled for a date earlier this week, April 17, but Starship didn't launch due to a pressurization issue. Today, we finally saw it taking off from the ground, at least for a couple of 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," the SpaceX account tweeted.

Starship is the most powerful rocket that was ever built, standing at 119 meters (390 ft) tall, and is fully reusable.

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Comments

  1. Brotherhood of Spacex Fanboys said on April 21, 2023 at 9:12 am
    Reply

    Fake news, it was not an explosion, it was a rapid unplanned disassembly. Do not believe your lying eyes. That was not tax payer money from a NASA contract going up in flames, it was a stunning success and could have not gone any better.

    Remember, a rapid unplanned disassembly is far better than a non a rapid unplanned disassembly because it saves money.

  2. Thorky said on April 20, 2023 at 7:32 pm
    Reply

    Where did the debris come down? Will Musk clean that area?

    1. LOL said on April 20, 2023 at 11:25 pm
      Reply

      I don’t think he will.

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