SpaceX’s Starship rocket explodes after launch

SpaceX’s giant new rocket blasted off on its first test flight Thursday but failed minutes after rising from the launch pad.

Elon Musk’s company was aiming to send the nearly 400-foot (120-meter) Starship rocket on a round-the-world trip from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border. It carried no people or satellites; both the booster and spacecraft on top were to be ditched into the sea.

Throngs of spectators watched from South Padre Island, several miles away from the Boca Chica Beach launch site, which was off-limits. Space’s first try to launch the rocket was called off Monday because of a stuck valve in the rocket during fueling.

Space X took to twitter to talk about the failure. It tweeted, "As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation. 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!"

Elon Musk's company launched the nearly 400-foot (120-metre) Starship rocket from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border.

The plan called for the booster to peel away and plummet into the Gulf of Mexico shortly after liftoff, with the spacecraft hurtling ever higher toward the east in a bid to circle the world, before crashing into the Pacific near Hawaii. The company planned to use Starship to send people and cargo to the moon and, eventually, Mars. NASA has reserved a Starship for its next moonwalking team, and rich tourists are already booking lunar flybys.

It was the second launch attempt. Monday's try was scrapped by a frozen booster valve.