Musk's "Starship" giant rocket explodes on first test flight

With a delay of two days, the launch attempt of SpaceX's "Starship" took place today. But the rocket and spacecraft exploded before separation. Musk still sees it as a success.

With today's launch of his new rocket, Elon Musk wanted his spacecraft to orbit the Earth at least once. But shortly after launch, the rocket exploded.

The launch was originally scheduled for Monday, but was postponed due to valve problems.

The entire 120-meter-long rocket, which consisted of 70 meters of rocket stages and 50 meters of spacecraft, took off, but flew for just under three minutes. The rocket stage, which received its thrust from 33 engines fired with liquid methane and liquid oxygen, was considered the most powerful rocket ever built and could move a payload of 100 tons.

The spacecraft's flight was supposed to last 90 minutes, but the rocket exploded before the stages separated. Musk nevertheless congratulated his team on their success. He himself had only set the chance that the spacecraft would reach Earth's orbit during this launch at 50:50.

The aim of the development is to be able to reuse both the rocket and the spacecraft. The U.S. space agency NASA wants to use this rocket model in 2025 to fly humans to the moon again. Musk himself is striving for Mars with his project.

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