The Starship rocket’s first orbital test ended in smoke on Thursday morning. SpaceX’s rocket, which could revolutionize space transportation, experienced an “unplanned rapid disassembly”, the term Elon Musk’s company uses to describe an explosion.
The event took place a few minutes after the launch. But SpaceX believes this test, the first where all of Starship’s systems were integrated together, will be helpful.
“With such a test, success comes from what we can learn,” said the company on Twitter, also owned by Elon Musk. Today’s test will help us improve Starship’s reliability and spread life to multiple planets. Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team for such an exciting first integrated Starship test! »
Starship could cut 10 or even 100 times the cost of launching cargo and humans into orbit. A habitable version of the rocket has been chosen by NASA for the planned moon landing during the Artemis III mission in 2025. SpaceX’s approach is to improve its rockets through trial and error.