Huge smoke clouds form as SpaceX Starship raises from the company's Boca Chica launchpad on an orbital test mission near Brownsville, Texas, U.S. April 20, 2023. (REUTERS/Gene Blevins)
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Elon Musk’s SpaceX Thursday successfully launched an uncrewed test flight of its next-generation Starship cruise vessel from the company’s new Super Heavy rocket on Thursday. However, within minutes of launch from SpaceX’s Starbase spaceport in Texas, the vehicle exploded when the upper-stage Starship failed to separate from the lower-stage Super Heavy. The explosion occurred less than four minutes into the flight, according to Reuters.
The mission’s goal was to achieve a 90-minute debut flight into space, which was unsuccessful due to the malfunction. Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, announced on Twitter that the next Starship test launch would take place “in a few months.
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