Elon Musk’s SpaceX spacecraft explodes on impact

The Starship rocket from the American space and aerospace company SpaceX began a high-altitude flight at 11:45 am Thursday (New Zealand time), appeared to perform the desired ‘landing and flip maneuver’ and exploded once it returned to the earth.

Despite the apparent destruction of the boat, the staff seemed happy with the result and one person commented: “Amazing team, good job.

Another message, added as a graphic to the event’s live feed, had the message “Awesome test. Congratulations to the Starship team! ”.

SpaceX chief Elon Musk hopes that the starship versions will one day take humans to other planets, particularly Mars. The vessel was to begin that journey with a trip 12.5 kilometers over Boca Chica, Texas.

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On Thursday, the second launch attempt was canceled just 2 minutes and 6 seconds before the planned takeoff. A voice was heard on the video feed saying, “Wait, wait, wait for the countdown.”

On Wednesday, the first test stalled when the Starship system abandoned launch just a second before liftoff.

The spacecraft appeared to be ready to take off until the last possible moment, when the onboard systems detected an error and then began the automatic abort procedure.

The rocket prototype must be able to launch and land in a vertical position, to allow successful travel between planets.

SpaceX claims that Starship can perform a “landing flip maneuver that would be a first for a vehicle of this size.”

Last month, Musk gave the rocket a one-in-three chance to stay in one piece.