Elon Musk reacts after Starship megarocket explodes. Again. Says, ‘Big improvement… lots of good data…’

Worl'd richest person, tech billionaire Elon Musk has reacted to his company SpaceX's Starship megarocket — the linchpin of his ambitious Mars colonisaion dream — exploding again during a test flight late on May 27.

In a post on his social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said this time the test was a “big improvement” and has given them “lots of good data to review”.

Here's what Elon Musk said…

“Starship made it to the scheduled ship engine cutoff, so big improvement over last flight! Also, no significant loss of heat shield tiles during ascent. Leaks caused loss of main tank pressure during the coast and re-entry phase. Lot of good data to review,” he wrote.

Further, he was also optimistic for the next missions being “faster”, adding: “Launch cadence for next 3 flights will be faster, at approximately 1 every 3 to 4 weeks.”

In another quote post later, he added: “Great achievement by the SpaceX team!”

SpaceX's Starship Flight 9 launched from Florida today — Watch

What Happened?

The 123 metre spacecraft, plagued by back-to-back explosions, tumbled out of control and broke apart during test flight on May 27, on its ninth demo from Starbase, SpaceX’s launch site at the southern tip of Texas.

Notably, SpaceX had hoped to release a series of mock satellites following liftoff, but dropped the plan after the door failed to open all the way. Then the spacecraft began spinning as it skimmed space toward an uncontrolled landing in the Indian Ocean.

SpaceX later confirmed that the spacecraft experienced “a rapid unscheduled disassembly,” or burst apart. “Teams will continue to review data and work toward our next flight test,” the company said in an online statement.

Notably, SpaceX is schedule to provide NASA with two rockets — one for the Moonshot mission with four astronauts in 2026, and one for the landing mission tentatively dated for 2027.

(With inputs from AP)