Elon Musk's giant rocket, Starship, explodes during test flight

This was a test flight folks, not a real launch, so things were expected to go wrong. You know, that's why they call it a TEST flight. The giant Elon Musk rocket was SpaceX's big boy named Starship. It was almost 400-ft tall and it launched out of Texas - but didn't get very far. As it was in flight, some of the engines went out and at some point the rocket was detonated in a controlled explosion so it didn't end up in someone's backyard. There wasn't anyone on board, nor were there any satellites, so it was pretty much an empty rocket being tested to see what it could handle, what goes right, and what goes wrong so they can record data and improve on the next test flight. This happens until they've got everything as perfect as can be.

Elon Musk wanted Starship to take flight around the world, but it only lasted a handful of minutes after liftoff and then exploded and fell into the gulf. AP added some details in their news report, saying:

It was the second launch attempt. Monday’s try was scrapped by a frozen booster valve.At 394 feet and nearly 17 million pounds of thrust, Starship easily surpasses NASA’s moon rockets — past, present and future.

The stainless steel rocket is designed to be fully reusable with fast turnaround, dramatically lowering costs, similar to what SpaceX’s smaller Falcon rockets have done soaring from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Nothing was to be saved from the test flight.The futuristic spacecraft flew several miles into the air during testing a few years ago, landing successfully only once. But this was to be the inaugural launch of the first-stage booster with 33 methane-fueled engines.