SpaceX’s Starship Prototype Explodes in Dramatic Fireball During Maiden Orbital Launch Attempt

SpaceX’s prototype Starship spacecraft and Super-Heavy booster has exploded minutes after launching on its maiden orbital test flight, though the craft held no passengers and therefore no one was hurt.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has far-reaching ambitions for its next generation launcher, which could see Starship transport crew and materials to low-Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Like the Falcon 9 rocket before it, both the Starship spacecraft and its monstrous booster have been designed to be recovered, refurbished, and reflown multiple times in an attempt to cut down on cost, and eventually provide a regular and frequent launch cadence.

Fully stacked, the Starship spacecraft and its enormous Super Heavy rocket looms an impressive 120 meters above SpaceX’s launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas, dwarfing all but the massive launch and catch tower constructed at SpaceX’s ever growing Starbase facility.

The Super Heavy first stage booster is powered by an awe-inspiring 33 Raptor engines, which can theoretically output 16.7 million pounds of force during a launch, making it twice as powerful as NASA’s Apollo-era Saturn V rocket. With this thrust, the Starship launcher would be capable of lifting a staggering 150 metric tons of cargo to orbit.

The biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, Space X’s Starship, launches in Texas before a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” during ascenthttps://t.co/hRvf4jIThd pic.twitter.com/XJ8YCayRF2

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) April 20, 2023

A further six Raptors are housed at the base of the Starship spacecraft, three of which are configured for atmospheric flight and re-entry, with the remaining three optimized for operation in the space environment. Sadly, Starship’s maiden outing was destined to end in fiery fashion before those upper stage engines ever had the chance to ignite.

At 9:33 ET on April 20, the concentric rings of Raptor engines at the base of the Super-Heavy booster ignited in quick succession, straining against Earth’s gravitational pull to force Starship up into the south Texas sky.

As the rocket continued skyward footage of the engines revealed that five of Super Heavy’s 33 Raptor engines had failed to light. Around the three minute mark, as mission handlers awaited stage separation, the vast rocket and its spacecraft began visibly tumbling end over end. Soon after, the long awaited mission ended in a dramatic explosion.

SpaceX stated repeatedly prior to liftoff that any scenario that allowed it to collect valuable data on the rocket without destroying the valuable launch infrastructure at the Starbase facility would be considered a victory.

“It’s the first launch of a very complicated, gigantic rocket, so it might not launch,” Musk said in a Twitter Spaces stream preceding a scrubbed April 17 launch attempt, as reported by the BBC.

“We’re going to be very careful, and if we see anything that gives us concern, we will postpone the launch,” explained the entrepreneur. “If we do launch, I would consider anything that does not result in the destruction of the launch pad itself to be a win.”

The earlier April 17 launch attempt had been scrubbed as a result of fuel pressure issues, which could have resulted from a frozen valve in the rocket’s plumbing. Numerous issues were also tracked moving into today’s launch, all of which will provide useful data that could help ensure the success of the next launch, which according to Musk could take place in a few short months.

What Will Starship’s Next Launch Attempt Look Like?

SpaceX’s plan for this upcoming launch is not yet clear. In a perfect scenario, the culmination of a Starship mission would see the spacecraft perform a de-orbit burn designed to zero its flight path in on a precise landing zone.

It would then descend through the atmosphere on its belly, reducing its terminal velocity by maximising aerodynamic resistance, before executing a flip manoeuvre, and firing two of its Raptor engines to perform a gentle powered landing. The super-heavy booster would also de-orbit, and descend to SpaceX’s Boca Chica site, where it would (hopefully) be caught in the arms of the catch tower.

After numerous fiery attempts, SpaceX was able to successfully land the fifteenth iteration of the Starship prototype using the ambitious flip manoeuvre. It has also performed firing tests on its gargantuan heavy-lift rocket.

However, the complicated nature of today’s launch led SpaceX to eschew this ambitious recovery profile. Instead, the booster would have been directed to make a powered splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, while Starship would have belly flopped into the Pacific Ocean.

Sadly, the mission never got that far. However, it is possible that Starship’s next mission could also see both rocket and spaceship make a splash instead of attempting powered landings.

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Image credit: SpaceX

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer