SpaceX Starship explodes in ‘rapid unscheduled disassembly,’ company says

A SpaceX spacecraft exploded during a test flight on Thursday.

The Starship spacecraft was meant to take off from its Starbase facility South Texas and splash down into the Indian Ocean.

SpaceX Starship Explodes

What we know:

Minutes after SpaceX’s Starship took the company’s livestream mentioned that it was having issues.

A spokesperson first noticed that some of the ship’s engines started to go out prior to the planned engine cut-off.

Soon after, the broadcast reported the ship had stopped delivering telemetry data.

“We do believe that we have lost the ship during its ascent phase,” said SpaceX engineer Kate Tice shortly before the company’s livestream shut off.

What they’re saying:

SpaceX released a statement on social media.

“Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn. Teams will continue to review data from today’s flight test to better understand root cause. With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability,” it read.

What we don’t know:

The cause of the explosion is still under investigation.

SpaceX says it plans to review data from the test to make a determination.

SpaceX Super Heavy booster catch

The entire test was not a failure.

SpaceX was able to guide the Super Heavy booster to the launch site, where it was caught by the Mechazilla tower.

The so-called “chopsticks” catch had been done once before.

The company plans to catch its boosters so they can be reused.