SpaceX’s next-generation rocket Starship explodes during first test-flight

SpaceX’s Starship , the world’s biggest rocket, exploded during its first test-flight to space on April 20 from Boca Chica in Texas

SpaceX’s Starship , the world’s biggest rocket, exploded during its first test-flight to space on April 20 from Boca Chica in Texas. The next-generation rocket, which was designed to send astronauts to Moon, Mars and beyond was launched at 8:33 am Central Time (1333 GMT) from Starbase on a planned 90-minute debut flight into space.

While the liftoff was successful, the giant rocket ended in explosion nearly four minutes after liftoff. Elon Musk’s company SpaceX said that Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation and their teams will continue to review data and work towards the next flight test.

On April 17, the debut launch of the uncrewed flight was called off just minutes before the scheduled launch time (08:20 local time) after a pressurant valve seemed to be frozen in the booster stage.

The U.S. space agency NASA has picked the Starship spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the Moon in late 2025 — a mission known as Artemis III — for the first time since the Apollo program ended in 1972.

Starship consists of a 164-foot (50-metre) tall spacecraft designed to carry crew and cargo that sits atop a 230-foot tall first-stage Super Heavy booster rocket.

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Collectively referred to as Starship, the spacecraft and the Super Heavy rocket have never flown in combination together, although there have been several sub-orbital test flights of the spacecraft alone.