Its capsule had been scheduled to separate from the first-stage rocket booster three minutes into the flight, but separation failed to occur, and the rocket blew up
Spectators gather to watch the SpaceX Starship on its Boca Chica launchpad after the US Federal Aviation Administration granted a long-awaited license allowing Elon Musk's SpaceX to launch the rocket to orbit for the first time, near Brownsville, Texas, U.S. April 16, 2023. Photo: Reuters
SpaceX's Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, exploded on Thursday during the first test flight of the spacecraft designed to send astronauts to the Moon, Mars and beyond.
The gigantic rocket successfully blasted off at 8:33am Central Time (1333 GMT) from Starbase, the private SpaceX spaceport in Boca Chica, Texas.
The Starship capsule had been scheduled to separate from the first-stage rocket booster three minutes into the flight but separation failed to occur and the rocket blew up.
"As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation," SpaceX tweeted.