The new SpaceX Starship rocket system exploded in a fireball shortly after being launched on a test flight Thursday morning and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.
Despite the fiery mishap, SpaceX is still calling the launch of the most powerful rocket ever constructed a success.
"As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation," the company said on Twitter. "With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today's test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary."
"Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting first integrated flight test of Starship," the space exploration company added.
SpaceX said its teams will continue to review data and work toward its next flight test.
The plan was to send the unmanned rocket on a round-the-world trip from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border, according to the Associated Press.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted about the launch but did not mention the explosion.
"Congrats @SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship," he said. "Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months."
The Starship rocket, a longtime project at SpaceX, is the biggest ever built, coming in at 394 feet high. Standing taller than the Statue of Liberty, the company plans to use the rocket to bring astronauts not only to the moon but also to Mars. Starship is said to be able to lift as much as 250 tons and 100 people on a trip to Mars. To make the journey to Mars, SpaceX would look to launch Starship, refuel it in orbit, then travel to the planet.
The rocket has 33 main engines that provide upwards of 16.7 million pounds of thrust, but maybe the biggest innovation for the rocket is Musk's goal to make it reusable.
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