Musk is optimistic after a huge rocket explosion: “In a few months” a new test flight already on the spacecraft | Instagram VTM News

look. The spacecraft exploded minutes after liftoff

The rocket was scheduled to launch at 3:28 PM Belgian time from SpaceX’s space base in Texas, but the launch was delayed due to some final checks. In the end, the Starship was sent into space after five minutes, but the separation between the booster and the capsule—which would later house the crew—did not happen. In the end, the Starship exploded shortly after liftoff.

SpaceX tweeted: “The teams will continue to review the data and work on the next flight test.” With testing like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s testing will help us improve spacecraft reliability as SpaceX attempts to make life multi-planetary. Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting first Starship test flight! “

Elon Musk, the head of the space company SpaceX, wants to take people to the moon and Mars with this rocket in the near future. There is room for a hundred passengers, but on this test flight, the Starship will depart without a crew on board.

After a blowout this afternoon, Musk is sure not giving up. He’s already hinted at a new test flight later this year via Twitter. “I learned a lot for the next test launch in a few months,” it sounds optimistic. When this will happen has not yet been announced.

The spacecraft is gigantic: its height is about 120 meters, which is taller than the Statue of Liberty in New York. That puts it 10 meters higher than the Saturn V, the rocket that took people to the moon and back between 1968 and 1972. The latter is also twice the height of the space shuttle and nearly three times the height of Soyuz rockets.

The bottom of this missile is the 70-meter heavy booster, with the engines that ensure the missile takes off. It will later end up in the Gulf of Mexico. The spacecraft’s 50-meter capsule, in which people will have to sit later, continues to fly. It covers the Atlantic Ocean, South Africa, the Indian Ocean, Indonesia and the Pacific Ocean. After an hour and a half and almost a full circle around the Earth, it will descend into the Pacific Ocean near the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

look. “I’m still guessing what exactly went wrong.”

There was a lot of cheering during the launch. “Very rightly so,” says science expert Martyn Peters at VTM NEWS. “It all started very well. The rocket with the booster left space in one piece.” It was already clear at the start of the launch that something wasn’t going as planned, he says. “A number of engines failed. First there were three, then many more followed. Then the Super Heavy should have separated from the higher spacecraft, but it didn’t. It started spinning and then we all saw that amazing explosion.”

SpaceX has yet to make any official communication about exactly what went wrong. “Failure of motors doesn’t necessarily have to be a problem,” explains Martijn Peters. SpaceX has previously stated that engine failure is not necessarily a hindrance to Super Heavy flight. The connection has been severed,” our science expert suspects.

“But even we’re not entirely sure. Did it explode by accident, or was it detonated by Elon Musk?” There is a system for deliberately detonating the missile, if it threatens to crash over an inhabited area, for example. “This system can go off automatically, but they can also turn it off manually.” Therefore, it is not clear at the present time who or what is exactly responsible for this explosion.

The photos show how eagerly the audience awaited the launch: