What starship her SpaceX from Elon Musk The rocket that exploded mid-air today just minutes after taking off from Texas is not just another one Musk has taken on “tourist” trips into space in recent years. Against.

With a height of about 120 meters and a diameter of nine starship (as part of KA starship and rocket super heavy) was the largest rocket ever built, but also the largest of any engine. It was a rocket stronger than Falcon 9 her SpaceX and Saturn V, which sent Apollo astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s, as well as a reusable rocket.

Musk himself described it starship “holy grail» space technology. According to the New York Times, the project in question has not only financial but also symbolic value. OUR Elon Musk imagined the starship as a vehicle that would one day take humans to planet Mars. Meanwhile, until that happens (if and when it does), the project in question will allow SpaceX to completely dominate the global spaceflight market.

The most powerful rocket ever built, the one in which Elon Musk has invested so much money, was launched today from a launch pad in South Texas, but missed its target, exploding in the air a few minutes after launch, before it could hit the target. orbit.

Kenneth Chang of The New York Times called today’s development “a failure for Elon Musk and SpaceX” but said it was “not a complete failure”. Even before today’s launch, Musk made sure to temper expectations, saying it could take a few tests before Starship successfully completes its first test flight. It is noted that according to the original plan, the purpose of Starship was to enter orbit around the Earth before “dive” back into the waters of the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii.

Congratulations @SpaceX team to an exciting test launch of Starship!

Learned a lot for the next test run in a few months. pic.twitter.com/gswdFut1dK

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2023

The rocket eventually exploded mid-air, but today’s test is considered valuable to the engineers working on the project, as the Starship managed to stay in the air for about four minutes. “Any information that will allow us to improve the design of future Starship structures is a success,” Musk himself said a few 24 hours earlier. “Congratulations to the SpaceX team […] We learned a lot about the next test in a few months,” he tweeted today after the failed first test. However, it is worth noting that the head of SpaceX also sent congratulations to the SpaceX team today. NASABill Nelson.

SpaceX is proud to learn from its mistakes, which it does not hide, but demonstrates. It is recalled, after all, that many of the first tests of the Falcon 9 rocket were unsuccessful, but now it is performing its tasks without any problems.

Congratulations @SpaceX at the first comprehensive flight test of Starship! Every great achievement in history has required a certain level of calculated risk, because with great risk comes great reward. Looking forward to everything SpaceX learns, until the next flight test and beyond. https://t.co/ZYsh5VkxsA

— Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) April 20, 2023

“Despite today’s setback, SpaceX remains the dominant spaceflight company worldwide. SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets have already flown into space 25 times through 2023, with the last launch successfully completed on Wednesday,” writes Kenneth Chang in the New York Times.

At the same time, however, today’s failure “raises questions about how soon SpaceX will be able to prepare a Starship that will send astronauts on a mission to Artemis III her NASA at its south pole Moon […] OUR NASA pays her SpaceX build a starship version that will take astronauts from lunar orbit to the lunar surface for missions. Artemis III And IV later this decade.”

In other – related to Musk and his companies – news of today, however, the automotive industry Tesla I saw that the value of its shares fell significantly.

According to the New York Times