Elon Musk's Space X Starship launch hailed success - despite blowing up

The launch of SpaceX's Starship rocket was praised by a Nasa's administrator and others, despite blowing up over the Gulf of Mexico four minutes into flight.

The highly anticipated launch had previously been scheduled for Monday, but was postponed to Thursday due to a technical hiccup.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had said ahead of Thursday's launch that provided Starship was “far enough away from the launchpad before something goes wrong, then I think I would consider that to be a success,” adding: "Just don’t blow up the launchpad."

His sentiments were shared by Nasa administrator Bill Nelson, who tweeted following the explosion: "Congrats to @SpaceX on Starship’s first integrated flight test! Every great achievement throughout history has demanded some level of calculated risk, because with great risk comes great reward. Looking forward to all that SpaceX learns, to the next flight test—and beyond."

Read more: SpaceX's Starship explodes minutes after landmark launch

The rocket system is the largest ever made, and it is hoped to be used for man's second trip to the Moon, and, eventually, to be able to transport humans to Mars.

Starship had a stationary test launch in February that went well, but during Thursday's launch the uncrewed rocket failed to make it into orbit before stage separation.

“Congratulations to @SpaceX on today’s launch of Starship, the tallest & most powerful rocket ever launched!” the National Air and Space Museum tweeted. “Although Starship experienced a ‘rapid unscheduled disassembly’ before stage separation, the test provided good data to the Starship team to prepare for the next one.”

Musk described the takeoff as an "exciting test launch of Starship" in a tweet in which he added that they had "learned a lot for next test launch in a few months".

"Lessons learned" seemed to be the sentiment shared by many within the science and space community, with Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield tweeting: "What a great first test of Starship! Huge accomplishment, huge lessons, onwards to the next attempt. Well done all at @SpaceX!”

Lex Fridman, a research scientist at MIT, tweeted: "Congrats to SpaceX team and Elon on an epic flight test of Starship this morning! That was a big step forward toward humans on Mars. It was amazing to watch and is truly inspiring!"

In a statement on Twitter, SpaceX said: "“As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation."

However while many experts praised the launch as an exciting step in space exploration, some - with perhaps a lesser understanding of man's journey into the great unknown - were less impressed.

"SpaceX is calling it 'a rapid unscheduled disassembly'," one Twitter user wrote. "In my day, we called it an explosion."