SPACEX’S STARSHIP SPACECRAFT blew up.
After a delayed launch on Monday due to a frozen pressurant valve, the rocket and team alike were back on the launch pad in Texas this morning. And while the initial launch went well and the craft did leave the ground this time, that unfortunately wasn’t the end of the story.
Just a few minutes after launch, before what is known as stage separation—where boosters separate from the craft—the whole thing went up in flames. Starship went from a victorious flying spaceship to a ball of fire in what the SpaceX Twitter account referred to as “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”
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This is, obviously, a bummer. Many excited spectators turned out to watch the first test launch of the revolutionary spaceship that is scheduled to take us back to the moon in 2025 as part of the Artemis program. The craft is not only the biggest rocket ever built with the most engines ever attached to a rocket, but it’s built to be completely reusable—something that will dramatically cut down the costs of future space missions.
If your rocket blows up, though, “reusable” kind of goes out the window. But the team doesn’t seem too down and out. “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 company stated on Twitter. “Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting first integrated flight test of Starship!”
This is actually not the first time the Starship project has been plagued with a big explosion. Several protoype versions of the craft blew up for different reasons. Two blew up during pressure tests, one blew up after an engine test, one was blown up on purpose, three blew up on landing, and two blew up mid-air. SpaceX has a long history of just letting things blow up in the name of progress, and Starship hasn’t been any different so far.
But there’s no doubt the Starship team will be back up and running with a brand-new spacecraft in the very near future. After all, they’ve got two years to get this thing spaceworthy for the planned Artemis III mission to bring humans back to the surface of the Moon, if everything is to go on schedule. And if there’s one thing SpaceX is good at, it’s continuing to push forward in the face of literal fire.
Hopefully, the next Starship will only be disassembled on a clear and thoroughly planned timeline.
Associate News Editor
Jackie is a writer and editor from Pennsylvania. She’s especially fond of writing about space and physics, and loves sharing the weird wonders of the universe with anyone who wants to listen. She is supervised in her home office by her two cats.
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