Ali Condon
Elon Musk and SpaceX are dealing with some heavy trolling online after the explosion of the company's Starship rocket.
The rocket launch was held at SpaceX Starbase in Texas today (20 April) and, according to SpaceX, it was a success, even though this happened:
Yep, just minutes after lift-off, the largest and most powerful rocket in history exploding mid-air in spectacular fashion.
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It was later revealed that two parts of the rocket, the booster and the cruise vessel, failed to separate after launching.
Despite the applause you'll hear in the background, the rocket was not supposed to explode, but to conduct a test flight before later touching down in the Gulf of Mexico.
Still, as far as SpaceX was concerned, the test was a success.
In a Twitter thread after the launch, a statement from SpaceX read: "As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation.
"Teams will continue to review data and work toward our next flight test.
"With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary."
"Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting first integrated flight test of Starship!"
As you can imagine, Elon Musk trolls are getting a particular kick out of this - especially the part where SpaceX describes an explosion as 'a rapid unscheduled disassembly.'
Within minutes of the explosion, the internet was flooded with jokes and digs at Elon and co.
To make matters worse, the trolling is happening on Elon's very own Twitter. I guess $44 billion can buy you a lot of things, but it can't buy you respect.
"SpaceX is calling it 'a rapid unscheduled disassembly.' In my day, we called it an explosion," one Twitter user teased.
"Everything Elon Musk touches has 'a rapid unscheduled disassembly'" a second wrote.
"Quote of the day: 'A rapid unscheduled disassembly.' Translation - The f***er exploded," penned a third.
Some people took inspiration from Elon's creative phrasing, and decided to start applying it to their own lives.
For example, one person joked: "Going to start referring to all my failures like SpaceX referring to a rocket explosion as a 'rapid unscheduled disassembly'. 'That's not burned food that's a "spontaneous carmelisation demonstration'."
Genius.
Even Dictionary.com joined the pile-on, tweeting: "We're pretty good with synonyms, but 'rapid unscheduled disassembly' is a new one, even for us."
That's gonna be hard to come back from but somehow, we think Elon will be alright.