SpaceX’s newest Starship explodes mere minutes after its launch

SpaceX’s next-generation Starship spacecraft exploded few minutes after it was launched from South Texas yesterday (20 April). The flight test was the first for Starship mounted atop the company’s new Super Heavy rocket. After an initial engine failure, the charges inside the spaceship detonated and destroyed the Startship, which is considered as the biggest ever created.

According to the Space X team, the mission was considered as a success, as the primary objective was to get the mammoth spaceship off the group even though it climbed only around 40 kms. BBC media has reported that the Space X engineers have stated that “they like to test early and often and are not afraid to break things”. However, it is likely that the explosion of the spaceship mere minutes after lift-off would have greatly affected SpaceX’s timeline to develop the Starship.

Following the catastrophic launch, Billionaire investor, Elon Musk tweeted today (21 April) “Such a great day in so many ways”.