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SpaceX's Starship, world's biggest rocket, explodes during test flight

Starship

This handout image provided by SpaceX shows the 164-foot (50-meter) tall Starship spacecraft sits atop the 230-foot tall Super Heavy rocket from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas on April 15, 2023.
 

Photo credit: SpaceX | AFP

SpaceX's Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, exploded on Thursday during the first test flight of the spacecraft designed to send astronauts to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

The gigantic rocket successfully blasted off at 8:33 am Central Time (1333 GMT) from Starbase, the private SpaceX spaceport in Boca Chica, Texas.

The Starship capsule had been scheduled to separate from the first-stage rocket booster three minutes into the flight but separation failed to occur and the rocket blew up.

"As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation," SpaceX tweeted.