Elon Musk's biggest rocket explodes again over the Caribbean

BarcelonaA Starship rocket from billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX company has exploded in mid-air again early Friday morning, on its eighth test launch. The ship exploded minutes after taking off from Texas, after spinning out of control for a few moments due to an alleged engine failure. In the live broadcast, the blackout of some of the engines could be seen and SpaceX confirmed that control of the ship had been lost. The explosion has dispersed fiery trails over the skies of Florida and the Bahamas.

"Unfortunately, that also happened last time, so now we have some practice," said Dan Huot, a spokesman for SpaceX, during the broadcast. This new failed attempt comes just six weeks after the last test, which also ended with an explosion in the air over the Gulf of Mexico that forced the diversion of dozens of commercial flights.

In a statement, Elon Musk's company explained that "the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled takeoff" and that the team would now review the flight data to understand the cause of the explosion. "Success comes from what we learn, and today's test will provide additional data to improve the reliability of Starship," it said.

The fifth test carried out with this ship in October 2024 was a complete success, when it was even possible to recover the propellant by picking it up with mechanical arms on its return to the ground. In the sixth test, this recovery was not achieved and the seventh, last January, ended in failure when the rocket exploded in the air. On that occasion, a leak in the ship's propellant is the most likely cause of the explosion, as Elon Musk, owner of SpaceX, later explained. But Elon Musk's rocket would have to complete several tests with complete success to be ready for the mission. Designed as a fully reusable rocket system, Starship is also at the heart of Elon Musk's ultimate goal of transporting humans to Mars and will be crucial to making SpaceX's business profitable.

This is no ordinary rocket: this is Space X's flagship, the world's largest and most powerful rocket, which is still in development. Starship is a central element of SpaceX's NASA's efforts to return humans to the Moon, a milestone that has not occurred since 1972. Starship would be the spacecraft that would carry astronauts on the Artemis 3 mission from orbit on our satellite to the lunar surface, after they travel there with the Space Launch System (SLS). Starship would then take off from the Moon and transfer astronauts back to Orion for the return to Earth. The Artemis 3 mission, which was planned for 2025 but has been delayed, is expected to take a woman and a black person to the Moon for the first time. However, the mission is still pending before then. Artemis 2 mission, which aims to test the new system in orbit around the Moon, and which will also include a woman and an African-American man on its team: Christina H. Koch and Victor Glover.