SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket left the launch pad for the first time on Thursday but exploded before reaching space, in a setback for Elon Musk’s private space company and its effort to build a rocket capable of flying to Mars.
The near-400ft-tall rocket, the most powerful ever launched, left its base along the Gulf coast in south Texas at about 8.30am local time. It rose on a ball of flame from its 33 Raptor engines and reached an altitude of nearly 40 kilometres before tumbling back towards Earth and exploding.
Musk, who was on hand at the SpaceX control centre for the launch, had spent days before talking down expectations for the huge rocket and warning that it was unlikely to complete all the phases of its first attempted space flight.
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