BOCA CHICA, Texas (WFLA) — SpaceX had a mostly successful test flight for its Starship mega rocket Saturday morning.
The rocket launch took place at about 8 a.m. out of Boca Chica, Texas. It was the second test flight for the spacecraft.
While the launch itself was successful, the super heavy rocket booster exploded during the explosion.
“As you can see, the Super Heavy booster has just experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly,” the SpaceX broadcaster said during their livestream.
After the explosion, the launch team lost the Starship spacecraft’s signal. Little is known about what happened with the spacecraft at this time.
“We have lost the second stage,” another stream host said.
The previous launch also gained notoriety after it ended in an explosion.
“Starship’s first flight test provided numerous lessons learned that directly contributed to several upgrades to both the vehicle and ground infrastructure to improve the probability of success on future flights,” SpaceX wrote.
According to the company’s website, the Starship and super heavy rocket are supposed to be the world’s most powerful rocket ever made, capable of launching up to 150 metric tonnes of reusable material and 250 tonnes of expendable material.
With both parts combined, the spacecraft is 397 feet long and has a diameter of 29.5 feet.
The goal of the reusable Starship is to be able to carry both cargo and crew to places in Earth’s orbit, the Moon, and possibly Mars, according to Space X. The company said it is also capable of point-to-point travel on Earth, being able to go anywhere in the world within an hour.
