TIMOTHY A. CLARY
SpaceX’s second test flight has ended in disaster after the vehicle’s spacecraft blew up about 15 minutes after liftoff.
The starship rocket took off from the company’s spaceport east of Brownsville, Texas around 8 a.m. ET. The spacecraft did successfully separate from the main booster rocket, however the booster exploded shortly afterwards as it descended.
“The booster experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly shortly after stage separation while Starship’s engines fired for several minutes on its way to space,” SpaceX shared on X, formerly known as Twitter. “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 multiplanetary.”