Elon Musk's SpaceX Starship Rocket Explodes During Test Flight

A SpaceX Starship rocket appears to have exploded while trying to land after a test flight.

Elon Musk's space exploration company had been attempting to launch and land one of its Starship rockets, just four weeks after another test ended up in an explosion.

In fact, all three previous Starship flights had resulted in what SpaceX calls a 'rapid unscheduled disassembly'.

It doesn't take too much to work out what that means.

The rocket was launched from their Boca Chica facility in Texas and had successfully performed all of the required static tests required before a flight attempt.

Whilst it did get off the floor, the video feed provided by SpaceX cut off at a crucial moment, and video footage from the ground showed debris falling near to where the rocket was supposed to land.

Afterwards, Musk tweeted: "A high production rate solves many ills," before adding: "At least the crater is in the right place!"

Musk then explained: "Looks like engine 2 had issues on ascent & didn't reach operating chamber pressure during landing burn, but, in theory, it wasn't needed.

"Something significant happened shortly after landing burn start. Should know what it was once we can examine the bits later today."

During the livestream of the test launch, SpaceX engineer and broadcast host John Insprucker confirmed that the landing was not going to be successful.

He said: "Starship is not coming back, don't wait for the landing, we do appear to have lost all the data from the vehicle and the team of course is away from the landing pad.

"As always, an exciting time with Starship."

The circumstances of the explosion and failed landing are not yet clear, as the video feed cut out and the fog surrounding the launch site obscured full view of the craft. However, as Musk pointed out, the team will examine what they can to determine what happened.

On Friday, Musk had tweeted that they were 'doing our best to land and fully recover' the rocket.

In this instance, as with the others, they failed to 'fully recover' the craft. On previous occasions the Starship rockets have also exploded post-landing.

However, the South African billionaire's tweets suggest that he is far from done with his space ambitions - and his Mars dream - as they have more rockets and will attempt the tests again.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: elon musk, US News, Technology, Weird, space

Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a LADbible journalist and Twin Peaks enthusiast. Despite having a career in football cut short by a chronic lack of talent, he managed to obtain degrees from both the University of London and Salford. According to his French teacher, at the weekend he mostly likes to play football and go to the park with his brother. Contact Tom on [email protected]

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