On Thursday, SpaceX’s Starship was about four minutes into flight when it exploded. SpaceX’s Kate Tice said it was unclear what caused the rocket to come apart. She said that “teams will continue to review the data and work toward our next flight test.”
Here’s what we know happened so far.
It continued to follow a normal trajectory, though a few of its 33 first-stage Raptor engines appeared not to ignite.
After flying for a few minutes, it got to the moment when the Starship spacecraft was supposed to separate from the Super Heavy booster. But the expected separation didn’t happen.
Instead, the entire stack started spinning wildly until it exploded. Officials later said the rocket’s flight termination system, a system designed to destroy the vehicle in case it goes off course, had ended the flight.
Still, since it was a test, SpaceX hailed the flight as a success because it would provide the company new information about how the vehicle performs in real life that will help SpaceX on future flights.
It is not clear when the company might try to fly again. On Twitter, Elon Musk said SpaceX “learned a lot for next test launch in a few months.”
Editing by Karly Domb Sadof and Jayne Orenstein.
