On Thursday morning, SpaceX's Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever made, launched from the southern tip of Texas.
However, just minutes later, during stage separation, a failure occurred, which SpaceX livestream hosts described as a "rapid unscheduled disassembly." The cause of the loss is not immediately apparent. This marked the first launch of the Starship's two sections together, following scrubbed first attempts on Monday due to fueling issues that caused the launch to be canceled.
Founder Elon Musk tweeted after the launch was scrapped, stating they "learned a lot today." Although Starship is designed to be fully reusable, none of the nearly 400-foot-tall rockets will be recovered.
If the launch had been successful, the first-stage booster, or the Super Heavy, would have dropped into the Gulf of Mexico, with the spacecraft passing over the Atlantic before landing near Hawaii. The flight was expected to last for an hour and a half.
The ultimate goal for SpaceX is to use the Starship's massive 16.7 million pounds of thrust to transport people and cargo to the moon and Mars. However, this test flight did not carry people or satellites.
Earlier versions of the rocket's upper stage were tested, with some rocketing into the stratosphere before landing upright for the first time this year. Musk believes there's an 80% chance that one of the many fleets of Starships currently under construction will reach orbit by the end of the year. Reusability would take a couple of years to accomplish fully and in rapid launches.
SpaceX was awarded a launch license by the Federal Aviation Administration last week, valid for five years. However, the American Bird Conservancy criticized the agency's decision, claiming that the company's operations at Boca Chica in south Texas allegedly damage important coastal bird habitats.
The President of the Conservancy, Mike Parr, stated that "Cape Canaveral offers a much lower environmental impact option, and is underutilized with less than one launch per month currently despite having six active launch pads and more pads that could be made available."
NASA has reserved a Starship for its next moonwalking team, which could launch as early as 2025, while some wealthy tourists are already booking lunar flybys. This report contains contributions from the Associated Press.
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