The flight of the Starship spacecraft ended with an emergency situation three minutes after launch – the rocket began to spin, followed by an explosion, follows from the broadcast of SpaceFlight Now.
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“The flight ended in an emergency, <…> not all engines had time to turn on,” the host said.
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The footage from the broadcast shows an explosion in the sky and flying debris.
“We don’t know if this happened due to the design of the rocket, or if the command was given to self-destruct,” the host added.
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Starship left for the first test flight from the site in Texas at 16:33 Moscow time. It was supposed to rise to a height of about 234 kilometers, make an almost complete orbit around the Earth, and then fall into the Pacific Ocean, near the Hawaiian Islands. It was not planned to save the launch vehicle, so the first stage after separation was supposed to fall into the Gulf of Mexico.
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So far, at least seven different Starship tests have ended with a rocket explosion. On the eve of the first flight, Musk said that it would be crazy to count on his success. At the same time, he made it clear that most of all he would like to avoid an explosion on the launch pad, since in this case it could take several months to prepare for a new launch.
