Today, Elon Musk and his SpaceX made the second attempt to launch the largest launch vehicle in the history of mankind. The super-heavy SuperHeavy rocket with the Starship spacecraft took off at 16:33 Moscow time from the private Boca Chica space center in Texas.
At about 16:35 Moscow time at an altitude of 38 km, the launch vehicle entered an uncontrolled rotation and exploded.
Starship is Elon Musk's ambitious project for deep space missions. It is being developed as a fully reusable transportation system designed to deliver crew and cargo to Earth orbit, assist humanity in returning to the Moon, and traveling to Mars and beyond.
The launch vehicle is 120 meters high and has a launch weight of more than 5000 tons, equipped with 33 Raptor engines. Before launch, 4800 tons of rocket fuel were filled into it, so the worst thing that could happen during the first launch was an explosion. Fortunately, the launch was successful and the unique launch pad was not destroyed.
According to the plan for the first SuperHeavy flight, the launch vehicle was supposed to make a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico 8 km from the US coast 30 minutes after launch. The Starship upper-stage spacecraft will make an incomplete circle around the Earth and fall into the Pacific Ocean near the Hawaiian archipelago about an hour and a half after liftoff.
To launch the spacecraft, SpaceX has built the world's largest launch pad. The Starship tower has a height of 146 meters and in the future will not only launch the launch vehicle, but also capture it back. The launch of a superheavy rocket will be of great importance for the further development of world cosmonautics, especially in the field of long-range flights. We will remind, earlier Elon Musk promised that a person will set foot on the surface of Mars in 2026.