A Successful Failure: Elon Musk’s Starship Explodes Shortly After Launch

SpaceX’s Starship Explodes A Few Minutes After Launch

Whatever the outcome, Thursday was set out to be a groundbreaking day for SpaceX and while it could have been better, that is exactly what it turned out to be. On April 20, 2023, SpaceX scheduled the launch of SpaceX’s Starship rocket, the most powerful rocket ever built on the planet. 

At 9:33 a.m. Eastern time, the engines of the Super Heavy rocket booster were ignited in a huge cloud of fire, smoke, and dust that covered the entirety of the surrounding objects. The starship slowly but majestically rose upward to the cheers of many onlookers watching from close to the site or via the many online streams.

According to CNN, the Super Heavy rocket booster was planned to use up most of its fuel around 2.5 minutes after launch and separate from the Starship spaceship. From there, the Starship was designed to accelerate to nearly orbital speeds using only its own engines, which were set to run for more than six minutes.

However, instead of separating there was a malfunction and the rocket began tumbling out of control before exploding in a fireball about 20 miles above the Gulf of Mexico. Much to the disappointment of those watching and involved in the launch.

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Reuters reports that SpaceX later acknowledged that the Super Heavy’s 33 powerful Raport engines had problems during ascent, and the booster rocket and Starship were not able to separate as intended before the unfortunate termination of the flight.

Despite the rather fiery and explosive outcome, the launch as many experts have come out to state was and remains a success. Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator tweeted, “Every great achievement throughout history has demanded some level of calculated risk because with great risk comes great reward.” Mr. Nelson then went on to offer his congratulations to the company for this fete.

What Is The Purpose Of The Starship?

There was nobody aboard the Starship and this was always a test flight from the beginning. Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX previously attempted to downgrade the public’s expectations of the launch by explicitly stating that it could take several tests before a successful launch.

The Starship is a rocket designed by Musk’s SpaceX for the space agency. It is expected to carry two astronauts during the Artemis III mission to the moon’s surface. The rocket, the biggest and most powerful so far, is expected to carry heavy cargo as well as people someday.

How Is The Starship Exploding A Success?

As Daniel Dumbacher, executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics put it, “It may look that way to some people, but it’s not a failure. It’s a learning experience.”

It is true the test massively fell short of being labeled a resounding success. However, just by clearing the launchpad, the test had achieved a major milestone.

“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 tweeted after the explosion.

SpaceX executives including founder and CEO Musk praised the test flight for achieving its main goal of getting the vehicle off the ground and for generating a lot of information that would help Starship’s growth.

As Reuters reports, experts said the test flight can be referred to as a “successful failure”. Garrett Reisman, an astronautical engineering professor at the University of Southern California said, “This is a classical SpaceX successful failure.”