SpaceX’s Starship rocket blew a huge crater into the concrete launchpad during liftoff

• SpaceX’s Starship blew a huge hole in its launchpad during takeoff last week.

• The rocket exploded Thursday, minutes after lifting off from Boca Chica, Texas.

• The damage is raising questions about when Starship will be able to attempt another orbital launch.

SpaceX’s Starship, the megarocket from Elon Musk’s space-exploration company exploded last week after its first attempted orbital launch.

But the rocket wasn’t the only thing left in pieces.

A video shared on LabPadre’s YouTube account shows a large crater beneath the launchpad’s circular launch mount in Boca Chica, Texas.

Starship is the tallest, most powerful rocket ever built, capable of generating about 17 million pounds of thrust upon liftoff. And all that power was enough to cause some major destruction and send sand and soil raining down on a nearby town.

Other pieces of equipment, including storage tanks near the launchpad, also suffered damage, which has raised questions about when Starship may be able to attempt another launch to space.

You can see residual debris all over the ground in the scene below, shortly after launch:

SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the launchpad damage.

The damage to the launchpad may have been averted if it had a flame trench or diverter, which is designed to redirect the rocket’s blast energy and heat away from the launch site, according to SpaceFlightNow. It was also missing a water-deluge system, which helps further reduce energy blast around the launch site during liftoff.

Musk tweeted Friday, the day after the rocket launched and exploded, that SpaceX was working on some of these designs, but they weren’t ready in time:

Last week’s launch was the first time SpaceX launched a Starship rocket and its Super Heavy booster together. About three minutes after liftoff, the booster failed to separate from the rocket, and the rocket exploded, failing to make it into orbit.

It isn’t immediately clear what caused the explosion.

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This isn’t SpaceX’s first explosion — four early prototypes of the Starship also ended in giant fireballs. However, SpaceX is optimistic about the launch on Thursday, though it’s unclear when Starship will fly again.

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