SpaceX Starship launch: Elon Musk says there is a ‘good chance’ rocket explodes or fails to take off
‘I would just like to set expectations... low,’ CEO says
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There is a good chance that the biggest rocket launch ever will not happen or go wrong, Elon Musk has warned.
“I guess I would just like to set expectations... low,” he said in a Twitter space conversation hosted hours before the scheduled launch.
He noted that it was likely that SpaceX would opt not to use the launch window on Monday morning, given the chance that last-minute problems could be encountered. If the company sees “anything that gives us concern” then it will postpone the launch, he said.
:: Follow all the latest news on the launch here
SpaceX will attempt a launch on Monday morning local time, but the company has a number of other dates as options and Mr Musk has previously predicted that the launch would happen on 20 April. That date – 4/20, a favourite number of the Internet – holds particular significance to the SpaceX chief executive.
If the rocket does manage to launch, then there is a good chance that too will end in an explosion rather than a successful trip around the Earth as planned, he said. The spacecraft is supposed to liftoff and then complete a full orbit of the planet – but will have to go a lot less far to useful, he noted.
“If we get far enough away from the launchpad before something goes wrong, I would consider that to be a success,” he said. “Just don’t blow up the launchpad.”
Even if the rocket does not manage to get into space, SpaceX will be able to gather vast amounts of data that will help inform future work. SpaceX has taken a slowly iterative approach to building Starship, which has included building a number of prototypes – some of which have exploded upon launch.
Mr Musk has repeatedly predicted that the launch could fail. At a conference last month, Mr Musk said there was a roughly 50 per cent chance that the spacecraft would make it to orbit.
“I’m not saying it will get to orbit, but I am guaranteeing excitement,” Musk said then. “So, won’t be boring!”
SpaceX has said that it is targeted 8am local central time, or 9am eastern and 2pm in the UK, for its first attempt at the launch. You can follow live coverage here.
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