Elon Sets Starship Ablaze On 4/20 To Conclude An Exciting Test Launch Gone Wrong

Elon Musk and SpaceX consider the Starship rocket launch on 4/20 a success, even after the spacecraft had to self-destruct minutes into the flight. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported an "anomaly" occurred during the ascent and prior to stage separation, resulting in the loss of the spacecraft.

Musk was quick to congratulate the SpaceX team in a tweet following the launch, stating, "Congrats SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship!" He added, "Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months." The next launch will have to wait until the Federal Aviation Administration finishes its investigation into the cause of the failure.

My Autotrack software captures the moment that Starship lost control. Excitement was very much guaranteed. Great first attempt by the SpaceX team!

Tune in to hear our live reaction! @NASASpaceflight https://t.co/uutBwWSABz pic.twitter.com/in201JaOiU

— Michael Baylor (@nextspaceflight) April 20, 2023

Michael Baylor, who provides live streams for NASASpaceflight.com, shared a video of the moment Starship lost control on Twitter. About 47 seconds into the video you hear someone exclaim "Wow," and then moments later the same person asking, "Uh oh, where's it going? Where is it going?"

About three minutes into the flight, SpaceX tweeted, "Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation."

The FAA said in a statement that it "will oversee the mishap investigation of the Starship/Super Heavy test mission." It added, "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 for all mishap investigations."

SpaceX joined Musk in the excitement of the launch, tweeting, "With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today's test will help us improve Starship's reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary."

As indicated earlier, Musk said the next launch would be later this year, but no specific date was given. HotHardware joins SpaceX in saying, "Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting first integrated flight test of Starship!"