SpaceX didn’t want to blow up its launchpad. It may have done just that.

Big rockets emit tremendous amounts of energy — and none more than SpaceX’s Starship, the most powerful rocket in the world, which generates thrust twice as powerful as the Saturn V rocket that flew the Apollo astronauts toward the moon.

So when it lifted off Thursday, the nearly 400-foot-tall Starship scattered debris for hundreds of yards like mortar fire, leaving a crater under its launch mount, dents in nearby storage tanks and questions about the extent of the repairs and when SpaceX might be able to attempt to launch again.