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SpaceX's next-generation Starship rocket exploded minutes after a test launch Thursday (April 20) morning in Boca Chica, Texas, NBC News reports.
The rocket launched successfully, but the separation of the booster from the spacecraft that was located atop the rocket appeared to fail, while some of its 33 engines seemed to have failed to ignite, leading to the spacecraft tumbling downward and exploding. The cause of the explosion and failure of the separation weren't immediately confirmed as of Thursday morning and SpaceX officials deemed the test trial as a success.
"As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation," SpaceX tweeted. "Teams will continue to review data and work toward our next flight test. With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today's test will help us improve Starship's reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary.
"Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting first integrated flight test of Starship!"
The next-generation Starship spacecraft, which is the most powerful ever developed, will be part of NASA's Artemis program, which intends to put humans on the moon in 2025. Thursday's test flight had no passengers on board and was planned to be a 90-minute flight prior to the explosion.
Starship is intended to be a reusable vehicle intended to carry large cargo loads into space.