--- title: "Elon Musk Says His Great Intellect Predicted That Starship Would Explode" description: "The unfortunate explosion was \"roughly what I expected,\" SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reportedly said in a Twitter Spaces session on Saturday." date: "2023-05-02" modified: "2023-05-02" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-predicted-starship-explode" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Space" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" - "the digest" --- # Elon Musk Says His Great Intellect Predicted That Starship Would Explode ![The unfortunate explosion was "roughly what I expected," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reportedly said in a Twitter Spaces session on Saturday.]() *NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 31: Elon Musk is seen arriving to Heidi Klum's 21st Annual Halloween Party at Sake No Hana at Moxy Lower East Side on October 31, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images) \Image: Getty Images/Gilbert Carrasquillo\* ## Crystal Ball Thought the scene that was SpaceX [blowing up its own Starship rocket]() mid-flight looked a little, uh, *unplanned?* Well, CEO Elon Musk says he knew that the rocket would explode, actually. Joke's on you! The unfortunate explosion, [which went down on April 20](), was "roughly what I expected," Musk said in — [what else]() — a Twitter Spaces session on Saturday, as [*The Washington Post* reports](). Sure. It's a bold thing to say, considering that the explosion, which lit a significant portion of a protected national park [on fire]() and [coated the surrounding area in rocket debris](), has since launched a fairly serious [FAA investigation into SpaceX](). But then again, Musk's attempts at launching one of SpaceX's massive Starships have [generally ended with flames](). At this point, what else should he — or anybody else — expect? ## Trial-by-Error NASA Administrator Bill Nelson appears to be on the controversial billionaire's side, testifying in Congress last week that the explosive test flight didn't worry him in the slightest. The explosion "is not a big downer in the way that SpaceX does things," Nelson told Congress, according to *WaPo*. "They are hardware-rich... that's their modus operandi. They launch. If something goes wrong, they figure out what it is. They go back, and they launch it again." And to Nelson's point, all of Musk's ventures, from Twitter to Tesla to SpaceX, generally tend to operate by way of trial-by-error. But the ethics are certainly up for debate. It's one thing to do some trial-by-error testing if you're doing, say, long division, or trying to build a lightbulb. It's another to *blow up rockets in the sky*, causing [unpredictable harm]() to nearby environments and putting animal and plant life, people, and [property]() in harm's way. ## Just a Lil' Dust Still, according to Musk, the explosion was small beans — and as far as he knows, didn't wreak any harm on nearby environments. Not any "meaningful" destruction, at least. The launch "did kick up a lot of dust," the billionaire reportedly said elsewhere in the Spaces chat, but "there has not been any meaningful damage to the environment that we're aware of." And in true Musk fashion, the SpaceX CEO says that he's pretty much positive that another Starship should reach orbit pretty soon. There's that great intellect, at it again. "I don't want to tempt fate, knock on wood," said Musk, according to *WaPo*, "but I think close to 100 percent chance of reaching orbit within 12 months." **More on Starship going kaboom:** [*Here's a Video of Every Time Starship Has Exploded So Far*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()