# Rhiannon Adam’s photograph captures SpaceX rocket test damage in Texas

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/the-space-rocket-i-could-have-been-aboard-explodes-rhiannon-adams-best-photograph/
- Published: 2026-11-11T15:53:17+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-11T16:27:28+00:00
- Original publisher: The Guardian (publisher lean: Left)
- Original article: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/nov/11/space-rocket-explodes-rhiannon-adam-best-photograph-spacex-moon
- Topics: Culture, Space, Technology, Travel

## Key points

- Adam was chosen for a planned civilian flight around the Moon.
- A 2023 test rocket broke apart four minutes after launch.
- The dearMoon project was cancelled in 2024.

## Summary

Photographer Rhiannon Adam was selected in 2021 to join seven other civilians on dearMoon, a planned SpaceX flight around the Moon funded by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa. Watching a SpaceX test rocket break apart in 2023 made the risks of space travel feel immediate, and the project’s eventual cancellation in 2024 brought an abrupt end to an ambition that had become central to her life and career.

Adam’s photograph shows a dust cloud rising from the launchpad after the rocket’s engines damaged the concrete and tower during liftoff from Boca Chica, Texas. Debris reached nearby homes, and the launch site closed for four months for clean-up and reconstruction. The image now features in Adam’s exhibition project, which uses her experience to reflect on power, identity and who gets to go to space.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.