the Starship rocket explodes after four minutes of flight

Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket in the world, took off for a test flight on Thursday, April 20. But from the first 30 seconds, five engines were already stopped. Then when the launcher separated, the rocket exploded. The test shot lasted four minutes. On the ground, the SpaceX teams continued to applaud. The company’s founder, Elon Musk, also considers it a success.

“We learned a lot for the next test”

“Congratulations to the SpaceX teams for this exciting Starship test launch! We learned a lot for the next test in a few months”, he tweeted. This inaugural flight was followed very closely by NASA. The US space agency wants to send four astronauts to the moon by 2025 and has chosen the mega-rocket to do so. An ambition shared by China, which has set itself a deadline of 2029 to achieve this. It would be the first time humans have returned to the moon since 1972.