SpaceX Starship prototype rocket explodes on landing after test launch

[webfact]

SpaceX Starship prototype rocket explodes on landing after test launch

 

The SpaceX Starship SN9 explodes into a fireball after its high altitude test flight from test facilities in Boca Chica, Texas, U.S. February 2, 2021. REUTERS/Gene Blevins

 

(Reuters) - A SpaceX Starship prototype rocket exploded on landing after an otherwise successful high-altitude experimental launch from Boca Chica, Texas, on Tuesday, in a repeat of an accident that destroyed a previous test rocket.

 

The Starship SN9 that blew up on its final descent, like the SN8 before it, was a prototype for the heavy-lift rocket being developed by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's private space company to carry humans and 100 tons (90,718 kg) of cargo on future missions to the moon and Mars.

 

The self-guided, 16-story-tall rocket initially soared into the clear South Texas sky from its launch pad on what appeared from NASA-SpaceX livestream coverage to be a flawless liftoff.

 

Here's the moment SpaceX's Starship SN9 exploded moments after takeoff after it returned to Earth for landing on Tuesday. It was a repeat of a fiery explosion when an unmanned Starship SN8 prototype crash-landed in early December.

 

Reaching the peak of its flight, the spacecraft then hovered momentarily in midair, shut off its engines and executed a planned "belly-flop" maneuver to descend nose-down under aerodynamic control back toward Earth.

 

The trouble appeared to come when the Starship, after flipping its nose upward again to begin a final landing sequence, tried to reignite its Raptor thrusters only to have one of them fail to work. The rocket fell rapidly to the ground in a ball of flames.

 

The complete Starship rocket, which will stand 394-feet (120 meters) tall when mated with its super-heavy first-stage booster, is the company's next-generation fully reusable launch vehicle - the center of Musk's ambitions to make human space travel more affordable and routine.

 

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Leslie Adler and Bill Berkrot)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-02-03

 

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[Tug]

Ouch!thats not a confidence builder hope they get it figured out yeiks!!

[Poet]

On the plus side, when we eventually do manage to get to Mars there is no 15-night quarantine.

 

[Bruce Aussie Chiang Mai]

Billionaire going to first private citizen to space later this year. Wish I was on his will. 

????

[ThailandRyan]

3 hours ago, Poet said:

On the plus side, when we eventually do manage to get to Mars there is no 15-night quarantine.

 

No, it is more like a quarantine in your spacecraft will be between 210 and 300 days.  Hopefully your accommodations are larger than an ASQ.  The better part of a year spent encapsulated, and then what, a two week vacation on the big red rock before your 210 to 300 day return trip.  One hell of an expensive vacation I would say.  Not one I would pay for, I will wait for the transporter to be developed and expedite the travel via. wormhole.....Who wants to be Buck Rodgers anyway.

[herfiehandbag]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

A SpaceX Starship prototype rocket exploded on landing after an otherwise successful high-altitude experimental launch from Boca Chica, Texas, on Tuesday, in a repeat of an accident that destroyed a previous test rocket

"Otherwise successful"!

The thing blew up - I would suggest that was less than successful ☺️

[malibukid]

he's an idiot, what is he trying to do?  who needs to go to Mars,? what's the point.  waste of money.  what has Musk ever done for the human race except build cars that most cannot afford.

Edited February 3, 2021 by malibukid

[KannikaP]

Kinnel, that was a big bang. Hope they're not using this one for the Thai moon shot.

 

The price of Teslas just went up.

Edited February 3, 2021 by KannikaP

[PETERTHEEATER]

Just buy a one way ticket........

[Mavrix]

I'm no rocket scientist, but that didn't seem to go that well ????