Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket explodes shortly after take-off – WATCH

Elon Musk’s SpaceX company’s new rocket, Starship, exploded on its maiden flight on Thursday.

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No-one was hurt in the un-crewed test that lifted off from Texas’ east coast on Thursday morning local time.

After around three minutes into the flight, the rocket – the biggest ever developed – started to tumble out of control and was destroyed, most probably by onboard charges.

Musk has said his company will try another launch in a couple of months.

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SpaceX engineers still class the launch as a success, and say they will review the data collected as they work towards the next flight.

“Congrats @SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship! Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months,” Musk tweeted.

The entrepreneur had tried to temper expectations before the launch. Just getting the vehicle off the ground and not destroying the launch pad infrastructure would be considered “a win”, he said.

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His wish was granted. Starship cleared its launch complex on the US-Mexico border and picked up pace as it headed out over the Gulf of Mexico. But it was evident within a minute or so that not everything was going to plan.

As the rocket climbed higher and higher, six of the 33 engines at the base of the vehicle had noticeably been shut down or had flamed out.

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And three minutes into the flight, it was pretty obvious the end was near. When the two halves of the vehicle should have been separating, they were in fact still connected – and tumbling.

At launch plus four minutes, a large explosion ripped across the blue sky, presumably the result of computers triggering Starship’s Flight Termination System.