April 20, 2023- SpaceX experienced an unfortunate sight as one of their starships blew up mid-flight having launched from Brownsville South Texas, Thursday morning. After roughly four minutes of flight passed before the starship came tumbling down falling apart before finally blowing apart.
The upper-stage Starship vehicle apparently did not separate from the booster, and four minutes after liftoff, the automatic flight termination system destroyed the rocket, ending the flight in a fireball.
Though the malfunction came at the cost of a rocket, SpaceX claims it has gathered new valuable data from the rockets failure to use in hopes of preventing such a occurrence again. However, the launch pad for the rocket remained undamaged, a risk SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had said was his greatest worry.
Luckily the rocket was a unmanned flight test and no one was harmed during the explosion.
Currently it is unclear when the company will attempt a flight again. On Twitter, Elon Musk said the company “learned a lot for next test launch in a few months.”
