Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket successfully launches, then explodes
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has success fully launch ed its next-generation Starship cruise vessel for the first time atop the company’s powerful new Super Heavy rocket . The uncrewed test flight ended minutes later with the vehicle exploding in the sky. The two-stage rocketship, standing taller than the Statue of Liberty at 120m high, blasted off from the company’s Starbase spaceport and test facility east of Brownsville, Texas. Watch the latest News on Channel 7 or stream for free on 7plus >> SpaceX hoped it would be, at best, a 90-minute debut flight into space but just shy of Earth orbit. A live SpaceX webcast of the lift-off showed the rocketship rising from the launch tower into the morning sky as the Super Heavy’s raptor engines roared to life in a ball of flame and billowing clouds of exhaust and water vapour. But less than four minutes into the flight, the upper-stage Starship failed to separate as designed from the lower-stage Super Heavy, and the combined vehicle was seen fli...