The space rocket I could have been aboard explodes: Rhiannon Adam’s best photograph
And that was the end of my adventure’ This photograph was taken on 20 April 2023 from the VIP section of SpaceX’s launch viewing area, looking out from South Padre Island, Texas, towards Boca Chica, a nature reserve near the Mexican border which is home to SpaceX’s Starbase launchpad.
Key points
- People stopped commissioning me because they assumed I was busy going to space; every conversation I had was about it.
- Then, four minutes into watching a rocket on a test flight, it broke apart.
- In 2021, I and seven other civilians were selected from an open call to go around the Moon on a free SpaceX Starship flight funded by the Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa.
After four minutes, following a relatively successful liftoff, the vehicle experienced what they call in space terms an “RUD” – Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly – and broke apart in the air.
Additional details
- For me, the story also became about being plucked from obscurity and planted in this very surreal world I could never have imagined being a part of in a million years.
- The debris ended up all over the local houses and SpaceX closed the launch facility for reconstruction for four months while they conducted a huge clean-up operation.
- I could have been on that.” The dust cloud in the image emerged from the concrete launchpad and tower – obliterated by the power of the raptor engines.
- Being selected for something like that changes your life and your perception of your worth in the world.
- We put on a brave face but secretly I was thinking: “Wow, the risks are no longer theoretical.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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