SpaceX’s Starship explodes in flight during test launch from South Texas

BOCA CHICA, Texas — SpaceX’s 400-foot Starship and Super Heavy rocket exploded over South Texas two minutes after lifting off Thursday morning.

The 400-foot tall Starship blasted off from SpaceX’s Starbase, Texas launch pad near the southern tip of Texas at 8:34 a.m. central time Thursday morning after a short delay. There were no crewmembers aboard.

But the rocket and vehicle failed to separate as it reached its apex at about 40 kilometers in altitude and experienced a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” about 2 minutes into the flight.

Despite the explosion, commentators on SpaceX’s YouTube launch channel called the test a success.

“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,” SpaceX said in a Twitter message. “Teams will continue to review data and work toward our next flight test.”

An earlier test flight fizzled this week and SpaceX pushed the launch back until Thursday.

The nearly 400-foot (120-meter) Starship was poised to blast off from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border with plans to return back to Earth. SpaceX’s Elon Musk gave 50-50 odds of the spacecraft reaching orbit on its debut.

None of the rocket will be recovered. Instead, if all goes well, the first-stage booster, dubbed Super Heavy, would drop into the Gulf of Mexico. The spacecraft on top would have continued eastward, passing over the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans before ditching near Hawaii. The whole flight was supposed to last 1 1/2 hours.

The company plans 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.

A stuck booster valve scrapped Monday’s try. Hundreds of space fans returned to the launch site at Boca Chica Beach on the eve of the second launch attempt, snapping more selfies.

“I've been waiting for this, really, for years,” said Bob Drwal, a retired engineer who drove down from Chicago with wife Donna.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.