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SpaceX Starship: launch of biggest-ever rocket ends with explosion

The SpaceX rocket made it partially through its first full test. It could change astrophysics and astronomy, as well as ferry people to the Moon and Mars.
  1. Alexandra Witze
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SpaceX's Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket launch from Starbase on April 20, 2023.

SpaceX’s Starship lifted off from the launch pad on 20 April before exploding a few minutes later. Credit: Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via Getty

The enormous Starship roared off a launch pad in southern Texas today and then exploded before it reached space, ending the first major test flight of the largest rocket ever built. Starship and its booster cleared the launch pad and soared to 39 kilometres high, then rotated out of control and blew up 4 minutes into flight, before the craft could separate as planned.

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Nature 616, 635-636 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01377-3

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