It was the largest spaceship ever built. The Starship didn’t make it into space. SpaceX has now announced why it detonated.
The launch of the world’s largest rocket Starship on Thursday was a real emotional roller coaster for the SpaceX employees around boss Elon Musk. First, the countdown had to be interrupted at the Starbase cosmodrome in Boca Chica (US state of Texas), then the approximately 120-meter-tall vehicle pushed itself into the sky to the applause of hundreds of spectators in the control center.
All was looking good until, just before staging, several engines failed and the rocket tumbled and then out of control. Finally, the unmanned spacecraft exploded at an altitude of 39 kilometers over the Gulf of Mexico.
The aerospace company SpaceX, which had planned to send the Starship on a 90-minute test flight into Earth orbit, later wrote that there was a “rapid unplanned breakup prior to staging.”
Starship was blown up in a controlled manner
SpaceX followed up with a statement on Friday. Accordingly, the Starship was blown up in a controlled manner for safety reasons. SpaceX: “The flight cancellation system has been activated in the booster and the spacecraft.” This is a common procedure for runaway missiles to avoid endangering people on the ground. SpaceX initially did not give any reasons for the failure of the engines.
Images from the live stream: The huge rocket explodes in flight. (What: t-online)
“With a test like this, success comes from what we learn,” said technology billionaire Elon Musk’s company. “And we learned an incredible amount today about the rocket and the ground systems, which will help us improve on future Starship flights.”
The US space agency Nasa has selected Starship to fly humans to the moon again for the first time in more than 50 years on the Artemis 3 mission at the end of 2025. Even flights to Mars and beyond should be possible with the rocket.
The Starship rocket system consists of a 70 meter high first propulsion stage called Super Heavy and a 50 meter long space shuttle with additional propulsion. The rocket should be able to be used several times in the future.
