Elisha Sauers Elisha Sauers writes about space for Mashable, taking deep dives into NASA's moon and Mars missions, chatting up astronauts and history-making discoverers, and jetting above the clouds. Through 17 years of reporting, she's covered a variety of topics, including health, business, and government, with a penchant for public records requests. She previously worked for The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia, and The Capital in Annapolis, Maryland. Her work has earned numerous state awards, including the Virginia Press Association's top honor, Best in Show, and national recognition for narrative storytelling. For each year she has covered space, Sauers has won National Headliner Awards, including first place for her Sex in Space series. Send space tips and story ideas to [email protected] This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. During the test flight, the colossal booster was supposed to separate from the rocket about three minutes after liftoff from SpaceX's launch site in South Texas close to the Mexican border, then drop into the Gulf of Mexico. The ship would fly in space around Earth at an altitude of over 150 miles, then splash down off the Hawaiian coast about 1.5 hours later. Instead, the rocket never separated and continued to flip. Some debris plummeted into the ocean after it exploded on its descent, just four minutes after liftoff. You can watch the ordeal, from ignition to explosion, here, starting at 44:54: With the spacecraft flying empty and exploding over the ocean, no people appeared to be harmed by the spectacular blast. Immediately after the crash, SpaceX referred to the incident on Twitter as a "rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation." "We cleared the (launch) tower, which honestly, was our only hope," said Kate Tice, a quality systems engineering manager for SpaceX, during the live launch broadcast. Thunderous applause sounded from employees watching the test within Starbase, cheering for the accomplishment, despite the loss of the rocket. SpaceX's Starship soars through the sky during its first flight test on Thursday, April 20, 2023. Credit: SpaceX / YouTube Thursday's orbital flight test was supposed to be a crucial demonstration of hardware NASA will depend on to get humans back on the moon in the next few years. The space agency has a $4 billion contract with SpaceX to use Starships to land astronauts on the moon during Artemis III and IV, two upcoming missions that could come as early as 2025 and 2028, respectively. As part of the deal, the company will need to conduct a successful uncrewed test flight to the moon beforehand. NASA administrator Bill Nelson congratulated SpaceX on the bold effort Thursday, stating that great achievements through history have demanded "some level of calculated risk." Mashable Light Speed