SpaceX's huge Starship rocket, the most powerful ever built, blasted off on an unpiloted maiden flight Thursday and successfully flew for more than two minutes before tumbling out of control and exploding in a cloud of flaming debris.
"Starship just experienced what we call a rapid unscheduled disassembly, or a RUD, during ascent," said SpaceX engineer John Insprucker, serving as a launch commentator on the company's webcast.
The SpaceX Starship rocket explodes after launch for a flight test from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on April 20, 2023. PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
"Now this was a development test, this was the first test flight of Starship, and the goal is to gather the data and as we said, clear the pad and get ready to go again. So you never know exactly what's going to happen, but as we promised, excitement is guaranteed! Starship gave us a rather spectacular end to what was truly an incredible test."
Tweeted SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who monitored launch from the SpaceX control center in Boca Chica, Texas: "Congrats @SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship! Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months."
Thursday's launch was the second attempt, after a
countdown was scrubbed on Monday due to a frozen valve.
Thrilling thousands of area residents, tourists and journalists looking on from nearby South Padre Island, the 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines powering the Super Heavy first stage roared to life at 9:30 a.m. EDT, two minutes later than planned because of minor technical snags.
The engines quickly throttled up to 16 million pounds of thrust — twice the power of the current record holder, NASA's SLS moon rocket — and the gargantuan rocket majestically climbed away from SpaceX's "Starbase" launch facility.
With its engines gulping some 40,000 pounds of propellant per second, the rocket initially climbed straight up and then gracefully tilted over onto an easterly trajectory toward the Florida Straits.
The SpaceX Starship rocket lifts off from the launchpad during a flight test from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on April 20, 2023. PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
on-screen graphics in the SpaceX webcast showed
three of the 33 Raptor engines had either shut down moments after liftoff or never ignited in the first place — two in an outer ring of 20 fixed Raptors and one of the 13 central steerable engines. Three more outer engines shut down over the next minute and 20 seconds or so
