SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket explodes on its most complex test flight yet

SpaceX is colossal Spaceship rocket blasted off on Thursday on its most complex test flight to date with Elon Musk looking to replicate a booster shoot with giant mechanical arms and add a new twist.

The 400-foot (123-meter) rocket lifted off the southern tip of Texasheading out across the Gulf of Mexico in the late afternoon.

Founder and CEO Musk aimed to score another booster hold at the launch pad several minutes into the flight, replicating last October’s feat. SpaceX reinforced the capture tower after a new test the following month ended up damaging sensors on the chopstick-like arms, forcing the team to forego a capture attempt. The booster was instead steered into the bay.

SpaceX insisted that everything had to be perfect for the booster to return to the launch site at Boca Chica Beach near the Mexican border. This booster was the first to use a recycled engine – one from October’s successful capture.

The company also upgraded the spacecraft for the latest demo, packing it with 10 dummy satellites for release into space. They are the same size as SpaceX’s Starlink Internet satellites and will follow the same flight path as the spacecraft, ending up destroyed on entry. The spacecraft will dive into the Indian Ocean to end the hour-long mission.

Musk plans to launch actual Starlinks on Starships before moving on to other satellites and eventually crews.

It was the seventh test flight for the world’s largest and most powerful rocket. NASA has reserved a pair of starships to land astronauts on the moon later this decade. Musk’s target is Mars.

“Every Starship launch is another step closer to Mars,” Musk said via X ahead of launch.

Hours earlier in Florida, another billionaire’s rocket company – Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin – launched the latest super-sized rocket, the New Glenn. The rocket reached orbit on its first flight and successfully placed an experimental satellite thousands of miles above Earth. But the first-stage booster was destroyed and missed its targeted landing on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean.

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