SpaceX giant rocket explodes minutes after launch from Texas
South Padre Island, Apr 20: SpaceX's giant new rocket exploded minutes after blasting off Thursday on it first test flight and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.
Elon Musk's company was aiming to send the nearly 400-foot (120-meter) Starship rocket on a round-the-world trip from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border.
It carried no people or satellites.
Images showed multiple engines weren't working on the 33-engine rocket as it climbed from the launch pad, reaching as high as 24 miles (39 kilometers.)
The flight plan had called for the booster to peel away from the spacecraft minutes after liftoff, but that didn't happen.
The rocket began to tumble and then exploded four minutes into the flight, plummeting into the gulf.
After separating, the spacecraft was supposed to continue east and attempt to circle the world, before crashing into the Pacific near Hawaii.
Throngs of spectators watched from South Padre Island, several miles away from the Boca Chica Beach launch site, which was off limits. As it lifted off, the crowd screamed: "Go, baby, go!"
Musk, in a tweet, called it "an exciting test launch of Starship! Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months."
In the weeks leading up to the flight, Musk gave 50-50 odds that the spacecraft would reach orbit.
The company plans to use Starship to send people and cargo to the moon and, eventually, Mars.
NASA has reserved a Starship for its next moonwalking team, and rich tourists are already booking lunar flybys.
It was the second launch attempt. Monday's try was scrapped by a frozen booster valve.
At 394 feet and nearly 17 million pounds of thrust, Starship easily surpasses NASA's moon rockets past, present and future.
The stainless steel rocket is designed to be fully reusable with fast turnaround, dramatically lowering costs, similar to what SpaceX's smaller Falcon rockets have done soaring from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Nothing was to be saved from the test flight.
The futuristic spacecraft flew several miles into the air during testing a few years ago, landing successfully only once.
But this was to be the inaugural launch of the first-stage booster with 33 methane-fuelled engines.
SpaceX has more boosters and spacecraft lined up for more test flights. Musk wants to fire them off in quick succession, so he can start using Starships to launch satellites into low-Earth orbit and then put people on board.
Starship Super Heavy has experienced an anomaly before stage separation! 💥 pic.twitter.com/MVw0bonkTi
— Primal Space (@thePrimalSpace) April 20, 2023
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Starc-inspired Delhi Capitals beat RR via super over
New Delhi, Apr 16 (PTI): A Mitchell Starc-inspired Delhi Capitals defeated Rajasthan Royals via the super over in their Indian Premier League match here on Wednesday.
Needing 12 runs in the super over, DC got them in four balls.
Asked to bat first, Delhi Capitals scored 188 for five.
In reply, Yashasvi Jaiswal (51 off 27 balls) and Nitish Rana (51 off 28 balls) scored brisk half-centuries to lead RR's charge before a brilliant final over by Starc took the game to the super over with the visitors finishing at 188 for four in 20 overs.
RR needed nine in the last over and Starc conceded only eight to stretch the game.
Earlier, the home team well served by Abhishek Porel's 37-ball 49 at the top of the order and even though KL Rahul consumed 32 balls for his 38, skipper Axar Patel (34 off 14 balls) and Tristan Stubbs (34 not out off 18) switched to top gear to help DC go past the 185-run mark.
Brief scores:
Delhi Capitals: 188/5 in 20 overs (Abhishek Porel 49, Tristan Stubbs 34 not out, Axar Patel 34, KL Rahul 38; Jofra Archer 2/32)..
Rajasthan Royals: 188/4 in 20 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 51, Nitish Rana 51).
