SpaceX’s Prototype Starship successful flight ends in explosion as it crash-lands.
Today marks the first test flight of SpaceX’s first next-generation Starship (SN8). The lift-off was successful, and the nearly 7 minutes flight allowed the prototype to reach the 12.5 kilometres milestone — in comparison to the previous most successful test-flight, the flight distance increased by almost 100 times.
Unfortunately, the landing procedure failed as the Starship was not able to slow down enough, making the 70 meters tall, stainless steel, bullet-shaped prototype, hit the ground engines first. The touchdown resulted in a massive fireball that engulfed the testing site, as SpaceX’s live broadcast showed.
Even so, Elon Musk marked the flight as a “successful ascent”. On a Twitter post he explained that when the engines reignited for the touchdown procedure, the fuel tank pressure was low, causing the Starship to descent too fast. “But we got all the data we needed!” tweeted SpaceX’s CEO.
SpaceX plans to use Starship to launch satellites into Earth’s orbit and, most importantly, to deliver people as well as cargo to the moon and Mars.
While it is still being developed, Elon Musk stated that reaching Mars is a plan reachable within six years — “if we get lucky, maybe four”.