Starship's engines flashed through the fog, and the rocket slowly climbed into the sky — before exploding about 4 minutes after liftoff.
Jose Cabrera, a technician for SpaceX, holds a flag as he waits for a scheduled test flight of Starship on Thursday, April 20, 2023, at Isla Blanca Park in South Padre Island. “I’m so excited,” he said. “Part of me is in that rocket, because I work for SpaceX.”SpaceX launched the world's most powerful rocket Thursday morning from South Texas. Its engines flashed through the fog, and the rocket slowly climbed into the sky — before exploding about 4 minutes after liftoff.
Even more people watched from live video provided by SpaceX and the legion of YouTubers who document the company’s progress. The Super Heavy rocket’s 33 engines generated between 16 million and 17 million pounds of thrust. That’s twice as powerful as the Saturn V rocket that sent Apollo astronauts to the moon with 7.6 million pounds of thrust.
Still, Smith said he would consider the mission a success if Super Heavy survived the 2 minutes and 49 seconds its engines were supposed to be ignited. Because that's actually the easier part.
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