SpaceX's giant 'Starship' rocket fails minutes after launching from Texas
On Thursday (April 20), SpaceX’s massive new rocket took off on its inaugural test flight but malfunctioned within minutes of launching from the pad.
Elon Musk’s company was aiming to send the nearly 400-foot (120-meter) Starship rocket on a round-the-world trip from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border. It carried no people or satellites; both the booster and spacecraft on top were to be ditched into the sea.
Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/4t8mRP37Gp
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 20, 2023
Throngs of spectators watched from South Padre Island, several miles away from the Boca Chica Beach launch site, which was off limits.
Also Read: Musk’s SpaceX Starship, biggest rocket ever, test flight postponed
Spaces first try to launch the rocket was called off Monday because of a stuck valve in the rocket during fuelling.
SpaceX’s new rocket, the biggest and most powerful ever built, blasted off Thursday on its first test flight, thundering into the South Texas sky in an attempt to orbit the world.
Elon Musk’s company launched the nearly 400-foot (120-meter) Starship rocket from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border. The plan called for the booster to peel away and plummet into the Gulf of Mexico shortly after lift-off, with the spacecraft hurtling ever higher toward the east in a bid to circle the world, before crashing into the Pacific near Hawaii.
No people or satellites were aboard for this debut launch.
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Throngs of spectators watched from several miles away from the Boca Chica Beach launch site, which was off-limits.
The company plans to use Starship to send people and cargo to the moon and, eventually, Mars. NASA has reserved a Starship for its next moonwalking team, and rich tourists are already booking lunar flybys.
It was the second launch attempt. Monday’s try was scrapped by a frozen booster valve.
(With agency inputs)
