A test flight at Elon Musk’s space exploration company, SpaceX, led to the explosion of what is perhaps the company’s most important test till date.
Since 2012, SpaceX has been developing Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket with twice the firepower of any known rocket. Starship is over 120 metres long, and Musk’s long-term vision is to help human colonisation of Mars.
After waiting years, SpaceX finally received approval from the government to kick off its tests earlier in April. It was originally scheduled to launch on Monday, April 17, but that launch was cancelledafter a pressurisation valve was reported frozen—they couldn’t let it go.
What went wrong this time? The launch was successful. A live streaming of the launch shows that Starship took off at 8:33 AM BST. A few minutes after take-off, though, it blew up. SpaceX, in a tweet, reports that Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly after two sections of its rocket pulled a Bonnie-and-Clyde—they were inseparable.
It might appear that the company lost a rocket and potentially millions of dollars with this test, but so far, everyone—even Musk—considers it a success. That’s why it’s a test! SpaceX itself was sceptical about the success of the test, and will now learn from its mistakes. Musk also took to Twitter to congratulate his team, and urge them towards learning from the test.
