SpaceX Starship rocket launch ends in midair explosion minutes after takeoff

image source Google Famous Tricks

SpaceX's huge Starship rocket, the most powerful ever built, blasted off on an unpiloted maiden flight Thursday.

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And successfully flew for more than two minutes before tumbling out of control and exploding in a cloud of flaming debris.

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"Starship just experienced what we call a rapid unscheduled disassembly, or a RUD, during ascent," said SpaceX engineer John Insprucker.

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"Now this was a development test, this was the first test flight of Starship, and the goal is to gather the data and as we said, clear the pad and get ready to go again.

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So, you never know exactly what's going to happen, but as we promised, excitement is guaranteed! Starship gave us a rather spectacular end to what was truly an incredible test."

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Tweeted SpaceX founder Elon Musk,"Congrats @SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship! Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months."

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Thursday's launch was the second attempt, after a countdown was scrubbed on Monday due to a frozen valve.

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Maximum altitude was just over 24 miles and maximum velocity was about 1,400 mph.

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The vehicle had fallen to about 18 miles altitude when it exploded, presumably due to its automatic self-destruct system.

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