Elon Musk spoke in detail about the problems and extraordinary situations that arose at SpaceX during the first launch of Starship.

According to Musk, the following events occurred during the launch of the Starship rocket:

• 3 Raptor engines (out of 33 installed on the rocket) shut down before launch. “The missile’s on-board system decided that they were not ready enough to operate at full power, so they were shut down. As a result of this incident, a small roll appeared when the rocket took off. Usually we don’t expect a slow start. In fact, everything should go straight up,” explained Musk;

• another engine failure occurred 27 seconds after the start. The unit, judging by the telemetry, exploded and damaged several nearby Raptors. “Even after part of the engines failed, the rocket continued to move,” Musk said;

• at 85 seconds into the flight, the real problems started. The rocket lost the ability to control the flight, the stabilization system failed. Starship has lost the ability to deflect in one direction or another the engines’ snorts;

• at SpaceX it was recorded that the Starship was out of control, engineers sent signals to the rocket to stop the flight. But even after receiving these commands, the Starship continued to move for some time. “It took a very long time to blow up the fuel tanks,” Musk clarified;

• the engineers believed that the launch was successful, because they received evidence of the high strength of the rocket. “The structural strength of Starship turned out to be better than we expected,” Musk concluded.

Regarding the new test launches of Starship, Musk said:

• on the next launch, the Starship will have many more explosive elements to destroy the missile quickly and quickly if necessary to abort the flight;

• the design of the starting table will be redesigned so that there is no repeat of the stone storm and dust storm in the district. Musk denied claims by experts that large chunks of concrete could have damaged the Raptor’s engines at launch;

• As part of the tests, SpaceX expects the second Starship launch attempt to be more successful. According to engineers, the company will be able to perform 4-5 more test flights in 2023. “This year we may have an 80% chance of going into orbit. I think the probability of Starship going into orbit within 12 months is close to 100%,” Musk expects.

On April 20, SpaceX attempted a test launch of Starship. SpaceX conducted a live broadcast of the pre-launch procedures and the launch.

A few minutes into the flight, the rocket spun up, but the fission process did not take place. As a result, the test run ended in an accident. SpaceX explained that a few minutes after the start of the flight, the Starship was destroyed specifically due to problems with the engines and loss of altitude.

Part of the engines did not work the ignition, some turned off after the start.

During the flight, the rocket spun, but it did not reach separation. As a result, the test run ended in an accident.

“The Starship suffered multiple engine failures, lost altitude, and started spinning. The command to end the flight was given to both the ship and the accelerator,” the company said.

Moments of explosion.

After the launch of the rocket, the Cameron County Emergency Management Office in Texas confirmed that rock debris, sand particles and dust were scattered about 10 km from the launch table. Many nearby houses, palm trees, cars, roads and other infrastructure objects appeared covered fine dust after the start. It turned out that some of the dust and stones reached more distant locations, damaging the glass of houses in Port Isabel and on the island of Saus Padre.

Musk admitted a constructive miscalculation with the launch table and said that SpaceX will be ready to conduct a new Starship launch in 1-2 months. The massive water-cooled steel plate to fit under the Starship launcher just couldn’t be assembled in time, he said, and was hoping the cement base from Fondag would hold up for one launch.