SpaceX's Super Heavy Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, blasted off Thursday morning in Texas. It was SpaceX's third test of its enormous rocket after the previous two launches ended in explosions. Although Thursday's launch was mostly successful, the rocket broke apart upon reentry. Kris Van Cleave has more.

SpaceX's highly anticipated test launch of the Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, ended in a partial success on April 20, 2023.

While the launch itself was spectacular, exceeding expectations in some areas, the mission ultimately fell short of its primary goal of a complete orbital flight.

The Super Heavy booster, a behemoth of 33 Raptor 2 engines, ignited with a roar that shook the ground, successfully lifting the integrated Starship and Super Heavy stack off the launchpad at Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.

Initial ascent was powerful and visually stunning, showcasing the immense thrust generated by the rocket.

However, the mission encountered problems several minutes into the flight.

While the initial stages of the ascent appeared nominal, the separation of the Super Heavy booster from the Starship upper stage didn't proceed as planned.

Although the Super Heavy booster attempted a controlled descent and attempted a soft landing in the Gulf of Mexico, it ultimately impacted the water at a higher speed than intended, resulting in an explosion.

The Starship itself continued its ascent, reaching a higher altitude than initially anticipated, briefly experiencing weightlessness, and even successfully deploying its nose cone.

However, the upper stage failed to reach orbit.

Instead, it experienced a loss of pressure and ultimately broke apart several minutes after separating from the booster, resulting in a controlled disintegration over the Gulf of Mexico, as per SpaceX's planned self-destruct sequence.

Despite the lack of a full orbital insertion, the test flight provided invaluable data for SpaceX engineers.

The successful ignition and initial ascent of the Super Heavy booster, along with some aspects of the Starship's flight profile, demonstrated significant progress in the development of the ambitious reusable launch system.

The data collected from the sensors and telemetry systems embedded within both stages will be crucial for future iterations and improvements.

The partial success marks a significant milestone, albeit a bumpy one, in the journey towards fully reusable space travel.

While the ultimate goal of a complete orbital flight remains elusive, the test launch's successes – particularly the performance of the Super Heavy booster – offer considerable optimism for SpaceX's future Starship missions.

The learning curve is steep, and the path to a fully operational Starship system remains long, but the ambition and scale of the endeavor continues to push the boundaries of space exploration.