SpaceX's Starship, the world's biggest rocket system, exploded Thursday from Starbase in Texas. Elon Musk's space firm, Elon Musk, said Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation. Our teams are continuing to review data and work toward our next flight test, it said in a statement.
In South Texas, Starship managed to land on the launchpad, but did not achieve its objectives - which was to reach the Earth's orbit. A few minutes after launch, some of the engines were out, and the rocket appeared to be spinning.
The mission was scheduled to take off Monday, but it was called off because of last minute problem with the pressurization system in the booster. SpaceX said that a 'pressurisation' issue in the lower-stage Super Heavy booster was the reason for scrubbing the launch.
The Starship was a completely reusable transportation system that could be utilized to transport both crew and cargo to Earth, the Moon, Mars, and beyond. It was the world's most powerful launch vehicle, able to carry up to 150 metric tonnes fully reusable and up to 250 metric tonnes expendable.
Both the lower-stage Super Heavy booster and the upper-stage Starship vessel were designed to be reusable components, capable of flying back to Earth for soft landings. If successful, the two parts would have ended their flight into space with crash landings at sea. The lower stage would have fallen into the Pacific Ocean after separating from the upper stage, which would have reached just one full Earth orbit. SpaceX said its team has completed multiple sub-orbital flight tests of Starship's upper stage from the launch site Starbase, successfully demonstrating an unprecedented approach to controlled flight. These flight tests demonstrated Starship's design, demonstrating it can fly through the subsonic phase of entry before re-lighting its engines and turning itself into a vertical configuration for landing.
In addition to the testing of Starship's upper stage, the team also conducted numerous tests of the Super Heavy rocket, which included the increasingly complex static fires that led to a full-duration 31 Raptor engine test the largest number of simultaneous rocket engine ignitions in history.
The SpaceX team also utilized the world's largest rocket launch and catch tower to launch the world's tallest rocket. The launch and catch tower, 146 meters tall, is designed to support vehicle integration, launch, and catch of the Super Heavy rocket booster. The space company has said the team will not attempt a vertical landing of Starship or a catch of the Super Heavy booster.