relive SpaceX’s Starship rocket liftoff to its midair explosion

Don’t talk to them about failure. Despite an explosion in mid-flight, the teams of the SpaceX company welcome the takeoff, Thursday, April 20, of the Starship mega-rocket, the largest in the world. A little more than three minutes after leaving the cows, just as its two stages were to separate, the rocket fully exploded for a reason yet to be determined.

For the company, however, this flight was rich in lessons.“Congratulations to the SpaceX teams for this great first test flight!”tweeted billionaire Elon Musk, boss of SpaceX, on Thursday. “We have learned a lot for the next take-off test in a few months”, he announced immediately. This was Starship’s first takeoff in its full configuration, with its 33-engine first stage dubbed “Super Heavy”.

At 120 meters high, it is the tallest rocket ever assembled, two and a half times larger than Ariane 5. The equivalent of a 30-storey building. Bigger than the legendary Saturn 5 rocket, which sent men to the Moonfifty years ago, it is also the most powerful ever designed.