SpaceX launched its new Starship mega-rocket for the first time on Thursday, after canceling its first attempt due to a valve issue.
Stacked atop its Super Heavy booster at SpaceX's new launchpad in Boca Chica, Texas, the black-and-silver vehicle was poised to prove itself as the biggest, most powerful rocket ever built.
The rocket successfully roared off the launch pad at 8:33 a.m. Central Time, but blew up about three minutes into the flight, at the point when it was due to separate from its booster.
Starship is the rocket on which SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk is hinging his biggest aspirations — including building and populating a human settlement on Mars. NASA, meanwhile, is counting on Starship to land its next astronauts on the moon as soon as 2025.
The company live-streamed the flight attempt, in the broadcast embedded below.
Musk previously estimated a 50% chance that the launch would succeed, during an interview at the Morgan Stanley Conference on March 7, hinting that the rocket may explode like many of its prototype predecessors.
"I'm not saying it will get to orbit, but I am guaranteeing excitement," Musk said at the conference, adding: "Won't be boring!"
The billionaire congratulated SpaceX on the launch in a tweet after the rocket exploded.
He had said on Sunday that as long as the rocket didn't "fireball" on the launchpad, he would consider the launch a success.
"Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months," Musk tweeted Thursday.
