Unmanned Starship explodes over gulf after liftoff

SpaceX’s Starship lifted off the pad in Southern Texas and cleared the launchpad, its first milestone, but then began tumbling as it was preparing for stage separation and the vehicle came apart some four minutes into flight.

“Obviously this does not appear to be a normal situation,” SpaceX’s John Insprucker said during the broadcast.  

Starship may have exploded, but it still met one of the major milestones SpaceX set out for the flight: It didn’t blow up the launchpad. The massive rocket was able to lift off successfully and didn’t explode until it was on its way to space.

If the rocket gets “far enough away from the launchpad before something goes wrong, then I think I would consider that to be a success,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said before the flight. “Just don’t blow up the launchpad.”

SpaceX’s Kate Tice said it was unclear what caused the rocket to come apart. She said that “teams will continue to review the data and work toward our next flight test.”