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There's more tragedy in the modern space race, but thankfully, no one was hurt as one of Elon Musk's rockets exploded just minutes after takeoff.
The tech bros are locking horns, and while Musk's SpaceX might feel way ahead of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, it seems the pair's past history is spurring them on to beat each other in conquering the cosmos.
Unfortunately, just days after Bezos delayed his New Glenn rocket from going into orbit, SpaceX has faced its own potential setback.
The 400ft Starship rocket was said to be the biggest and most powerful in the world, with the emphasis on the was part of that sentence. Launching at 4:40 p.m. local time from Boca Chica in south Texas, the upper stage of the Starship was said to have been 'lost' just minutes later.
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Posting on X, SpaceX confirmed: "Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn. Teams will continue to review data from today's flight test to better understand root cause.
"With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today's flight will help us improve Starship's reliability."
A host on the SpaceX livestream explained: "It looks like we lost contact a little under eight and a half minutes into the flight."
Footage doing the rounds on social media shows what looks to be the Starship exploding in a fiery inferno, with balls of light and trails of smoke seen over the Haitian capital of Port-Au-Prince.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was made aware that 'an anomaly occurred', issuing a statement confirming it slowed and diverted aircraft around the area where debris was falling. Still, it wasn't long until normal operations were resumed.
This wasn't a total failure for SpaceX, with some of the mission going as planned. Following the Starship's launch, its Super Heavy booster returned to Earth and hovered above the ground before it was gripped by giant mechanical arms. There was rapturous applause from control teams on the ground, but this likely won't take away from the disaster of the launch in general.
Starship exploding captured on an airplane pic.twitter.com/Y5maQrfmPG
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Mr. Musk has spoken out about the incident, sharing footage of a fiery trail and adding: "Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!"
With SpaceX picking itself up and dusting itself off, Musk promised there are 'improved versions' of the Starship on the way and 'already waiting for launch.'
He said nothing suggests the next launch will be pushed past next month, so there isn't long to wait to see Starship hopefully soar to new heights.
As for what caused the latest blunder, he concluded: "Preliminary indication is that we had an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure in excess of the vent capacity."
As for Blue Origin, Bezos finally got the New Glenn off the ground and was met with congratulations by Musk. Somewhat burying the hatchet, the world's richest man wrote: "Congratulations on reaching orbit on the first attempt! @JeffBezos."
