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SpaceX's Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, made headlines on Thursday morning with its historic test flight from a launchpad in South Texas. It was not the success story that many had hoped it would be. The rocket exploded midair before the separation stage.

“The vehicle experienced multiple engines out during the flight test, lost altitude, and began to tumble,” according to the SpaceX after-action statement. “The flight termination system was commanded on both the booster and ship.”

Development of Starship has been based at SpaceX’s privately held spaceport Starbase. The site is 40 minutes outside Brownsville, Texas, on the US-Mexico border.

SpaceX announced that “teams will continue to review data and work toward our next flight test.”

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a statement on Thursday afternoon.

“An anomaly occurred during the ascent and prior to stage separation resulting in a loss of the vehicle. No injuries or public property damage have been reported.”

“The FAA will oversee the mishap investigation of the Starship / Super Heavy test mission. A return to flight of the Starship / Super Heavy vehicle is based on the FAA determining that any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety. This is standard practice for all mishap investigations.”

SpaceX’s Starship is massive

SpaceX the private space agency is committed to improving the design of the Super Heavy rocket booster that houses 33 Raptor engines.

Fully stacked, the Starship and Super Heavy stand about 400 feet (120 meters) tall, and 30 feet wide (9 meters). It is designed to carry both crew and cargo. And is slated to take humans to the Moon, Mars, and other space destinations. 

The rocket has two parts: the Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy rocket booster.

The Super Heavy rocket booster is an impressive feat of engineering Its engine power can generate over 16 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.

The Starship spacecraft, which sits atop the booster, is capable of carrying up to 100 people. And has the capability of refueling in orbit to extend its range.

Test Flight

Thursday's test flight was a major milestone for SpaceX. It marked the first time the Starship has been launched. And although the flight only lasted four minutes valuable data was collected. 

According to SpaceX, the flight reached its highest point of 24.2 miles (39 kilometers) above the ground. 

The company reported that the rocketship experienced multiple engine failures during the flight. It lost altitude. And began to tumble.

 The flight termination system on both the booster and the ship was implemented to direct the explosion.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk congratulated team members on "an exciting test launch" in a post-launch tweet and said they "learned a lot for the next test launch in a few months."

The Future of SpaceX and the Starship

NASA has tapped SpaceX to provide a Starship lunar lander that would ferry astronauts from another spacecraft to the moon's surface. And the Artemis III mission is scheduled as early as 2025. 

In addition to the Artemis III mission, there are other ambitious projects on the manifest.

 A Starship-propelled tourism trip around the moon is planned for Yusaku Maezawa. The mission, aka “Dear Moon,” plans to fly the Japanese billionaire and eight crewmates, including artists and creatives from around the world.

Many of the “Dear Moon” crew were on site to witness Starship’s first test flight.

Karim Iliya, the flight photographer described the experience of the launch.

“This wave of sound just smashed into my body, and I could feel it and I could hear it and I thought: Am I really going inside that machine? It was absolutely wild,” Iliya said “It was just this feeling of joy and energy running through the crowd and through the people.”