Elon Musk congratulates SpaceX crew moments after Starship’s explosion

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk touted his firm’s newest launch take a look at of its Starship rocket even if it blew up mid-air simply minutes after takeoff.

The five hundred-foot-tall Starship, took off Thursday at 9:28 a.m. in Boca Chica, Texas, however the rocket didn’t separate from its booster and started spinning earlier than exploding 18 miles above the earth.

“Congrats @SpaceX crew on an thrilling take a look at launch of Starship!,” Musk tweeted following the explosion. “Realized quite a bit for subsequent take a look at launch in a number of months.”

The failure comes greater than a month after Musk warned that there was solely a 50% probability for the rocket making it in a single piece.

Musk predicted that even when the rocket had been to fail because it did, it “gained’t be boring,” referencing the spectacle of the exploding rocket.

The take a look at launches for the Starship rockets started two years in the past, with three ships beforehand exploding in mid-air and a fourth sticking the touchdown earlier than it blew up.

A fifth try proved profitable after a Starship prototype flew 33,000 ft and was capable of land upright and gently on its touchdown pad.

Starship is a part of SpaceX’s line of vessels poised to be the world’s first absolutely reusable orbital rockets, with each the ship and its 230-foot-tall booster designed to land themselves again on Earth after the flight.