NEW YORK: SpaceX’s massive Starship has launched, but failed to make orbit.
The stainless steel space vessel – composed of a spacecraft sitting atop the so-called Super Heavy booster rocket – took off from the launch site at Boca Chica, Texas in the US on Thursday morning.
At least five of its 33 Raptor engines did not appear to fire upon lift-off, said Stephen Clark, with SpaceflightNow.com. The rocket cleared the launch tower and headed into the sky.
However, the spacecraft failed to separate from the Super Heavy booster, with the entire vessel spinning before falling apart – in what is technically called a “rapid unscheduled disassembly”.
The behemoth launching system was 120 metres (394 feet) tall, higher than New York City’s Statue of Liberty. Its successful takeoff represents a step forward in United States space travel, with the company foreseeing the vessel as a key link in a manned mission one day reaching Mars.
The lift-off sets a record for the largest rocket ever to be launched.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had said in March that the chances the rocket would reach orbit were about 50 percent.
On Thursday, he tweeted: “Congrats [SpaceX] team on an exciting launch of Starship!” “Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months.”
There was a fire at the launch site following the lift-off.–Agencies
