Share

SpaceX Starship rocket launches in historic test but explodes mid-flight

Michael Sheetz
Sara Salinas

This was CNBC's live blog covering SpaceX's orbital launch attempt of its Starship rocket on Thursday.

SpaceX's Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, blasts off
watch now
VIDEO1:0101:01
SpaceX's Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, blasts off
Squawk on the Street

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas — Elon Musk's SpaceX on Thursday launched its Starship rocket for the first time, but fell short of reaching space after exploding in mid-flight. No crew were on board.

It's the culmination of years of regulatory work and technological tests for SpaceX and the largest and most powerful rocket ever built.

The company made a first go at getting this launch off the ground on Monday, but a pressure valve in the Super Heavy booster apparently froze. SpaceX teams worked to resolve a number of unidentified issues to make a second attempt possible Thursday.

SpaceX leadership repeatedly stressed the experimental nature of the launch and said any result that involved Starship getting off the launchpad would be a success. The rocket flew for nearly 4 minutes and successfully separated from the Super Heavy booster, a key in-flight milestone, before suffering what the company called a "rapid unscheduled disassembly."

Musk said the company "learned a lot" on Thursday and teased another test launch in "a few months."

Starship is designed to carry cargo and people beyond Earth and is critical to NASA's plan to return astronauts to the moon. Two years ago, SpaceX won a nearly $3 billion contract from NASA to use Starship as a crewed lunar lander. That would see Starship be used for as part of NASA's Artemis moon program, delivering astronauts to the lunar surface from the agency's SLS rocket and Orion capsule.

The company had hoped to conduct the first orbital Starship launch as early as summer 2021, but faced delays in development and in winning FAA approval, which came late Friday.

Follow along for live updates out of South Texas.

NASA Chief congratulates SpaceX

NASA Chief Bill Nelson congratulated SpaceX after the first integrated flight test.

"Every great achievement throughout history has demanded some level of calculated risk, because with great risk comes great reward," he said in a tweet. "Looking forward to all that SpaceX learns, to the next flight test—and beyond."

— Sara Salinas

Atmosphere in Texas

SpaceX's next-generation Starship spacecraft atop its powerful Super Heavy rocket lifts off from the company's Boca Chica launchpad on a brief uncrewed test flight near Brownsville, Texas, U.S. April 20, 2023. 
Go Nakamura | Reuters

Crowds have mostly dissipated now after the launch.

Onlookers packed along the coast of South Padre Island cheered raucously when the Super Heavy booster lit up, and screamed even louder as the rocket began moving off the launch pad.

Those cheers were quickly overwhelmed by the thundering roar of Starship's Raptor rocket engines. I was wearing earplugs and it felt like I wasn't, with the engines' sound shaking the ground as Starship disappeared from view into the sky.

— Michael Sheetz

Data review next

SpaceX noted that the company will review the data from the launch to build toward its next attempt.

"With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today's test will help us improve Starship's reliability."

— Michael Sheetz

Musk teases next test launch

Musk tweeted shortly after the 3-plus-minute flight that the company "learned a lot" and teased a "next test launch in a few months."

— Sara Salinas

The view from South Padre Island

Here's the view of the launch from South Padre Island, about five miles away from the launchpad.

— Michael Sheetz

No crew on flight

SpaceX's next-generation Starship spacecraft atop its powerful Super Heavy rocket lifts off from the company's Boca Chica launchpad on a brief uncrewed test flight near Brownsville, Texas, U.S. April 20, 2023. 
Go Nakamura | Reuters

To be clear, there were no people on board this first attempt to reach space with Starship. The company's leadership has previously emphasized that SpaceX expects to fly hundreds of Starship missions before people launch on the rocket.

— Michael Sheetz

One key milestone achieved

Before the mid-flight failure, Starship achieved one key milestone: the Super Heavy booster successfully separated from the rocket, flipped and began its return to Earth.

— Sara Salinas

Falling short of space

The SpaceX Starship lifts off from the launchpad during a flight test from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on April 20, 2023.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images

The SpaceX rocket flew to a maximum altitude of 39 kilometers, or about 127,000 feet, before exploding according to Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell. That distance is short of the 100 kilometers mark that is internationally-recognized as the boundary of space.

— Michael Sheetz

Starship suffers mid-flight failure

SpaceX's Starship launches from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, Thursday, April 20, 2023. The giant new rocket exploded minutes after blasting off on it first test flight and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.
Eric Gay | AP

The Starship rocket suffered a mid-flight failure roughly 4 minutes after its historic launch. The company said in a tweet it experienced a "rapid unscheduled disassembly," indicating the rocket was destroyed. As a reminder, no crew were on board.

— Sara Salinas

First on-board views from flight

SpaceX's live stream has shown the first on-board images from mid-flight, about 2 minutes after launch.

— Sara Salinas

Liftoff

SpaceX's next-generation Starship spacecraft atop its powerful Super Heavy rocket lifts off from the company's Boca Chica launchpad on a brief uncrewed test flight near Brownsville, Texas, U.S. April 20, 2023 in a still image from video.
Spacex | Reuters

Starship has launched, with the Super Heavy booster firing up its Raptor engines and lifting off the pad.

— Michael Sheetz

Holding

SpaceX engineers are holding the countdown clock with 40 seconds to go to check the systems.

— Sara Salinas

Earplugs in

With one minute to go, I've put earplugs in.

The company has warned that the noise from the rocket booster's 33 engines firing simultaneously may be heard in nearby counties. SpaceX noted that "what individuals experience will depend on weather and other conditions," but the bottom line is that the towering rocket will be very, very loud.

— Michael Sheetz

Propellant loading continues, with one stage complete

The SpaceX Starship, seen from South Padre Island, Texas, sits on the launchpad as it is readied for a flight test from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on April 20, 2023. 
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images

Insprucker said one stage of propellant loading is complete, "Closing out header tank load on the second stage."

The remaining stage is expected to finish loading at T-3, with Insprucker noting, "Currently we're not hearing a need to hold."

— Sara Salinas

'Good news'

John Insprucker, SpaceX principal integration engineer, said at T-12 that the SpaceX teams had only "good news" and that there were no significant issues with the launch vehicle.

"Everything continues to go well for an on-time launch," he said.

— Sara Salinas

Under T-15

The countdown to launch has ticked below T-15, which is about the moment where SpaceX called off Monday's attempt because of that frozen pressure valve.

— Sara Salinas

Starship by the numbers

The SpaceX Starship rocket stands on the launchpad from the SpaceX Starbase in Boca Chica as seen from South Padre Island, Texas on April 17, 2023.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images

Fully-stacked on the Super Heavy booster, Starship stands 394 feet tall, and is about 30 feet in diameter – making it the tallest rocket ever assembled.

The Super Heavy booster is what begins the rocket's journey to space. At its base are 33 Raptor engines, which together produce 16.7 million pounds of thrust – double the 8.8 million pounds of thrust of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which launched for the first time late last year.

Starship itself has six Raptor engines, with three for use while in the Earth's atmosphere and three for operating in the vacuum of space.

— Michael Sheetz

Starship fuels up

SpaceX is loading the Super Heavy booster with liquid oxygen and liquid methane, the propellants the company uses to fuel the rocket's engines.

In total, the rocket is filled with more than 10 million pounds of propellant.

— Michael Sheetz

Press assembles on South Padre Island

Press assembles on South Padre Island to watch SpaceX attempt to launch its Starship rocket on Thursday, April 20, 2023.
Michael Sheetz | CNBC

I'm sitting in some temporary bleachers with other members of the press near the amphitheater on the southern tip of South Padre Island, with a view of Starship on the launch pad about five miles away.

For reference, the press site at NASA's Kennedy Space Center is a little over three miles away from the launchpads in Florida.

It's a little foggy here near Starbase, and SpaceX said that its launch team is "keeping an eye on the weather."

— Michael Sheetz

The launch window

SpaceX has a 62-minute window to get Starship off the ground today. The window opens at 9:28 a.m. ET and goes until 10:30 a.m. ET.

— Michael Sheetz

‘Working around the clock on many issues’

Musk tweeted on Wednesday that the SpaceX team was "working around the clock on many issues." At the time, he said there was "maybe" a chance the company would be ready in time to make a launch attempt on Thursday.

— Michael Sheetz

Who’s up for round two?

Workers in a lift (R) prepare the SpaceX Starship after sunset ahead of its scheduled launch from the SpaceX Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas on April 18, 2023. 
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images

SpaceX postponed its first attempt to launch Starship Super Heavy on Monday, after making it most of the way through the countdown. The company reset for Thursday after conducting working on the rocket.

"Perhaps inevitable," Musk tweeted when the company announced it was aiming for April 20.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday issued SpaceX with the launch license the company needed to perform the flight, which represents the first time it tries to fly Starship to space.

SpaceX has not disclosed how much it has spent on the Starship program to date, but Musk previously estimated that he expects it will cost the company about $5 billion to complete.

— Michael Sheetz