A prototype SpaceX Starship missile exploded during a landing attempt minutes after a high-altitude test launch from Boca Chica, Texas, on Tuesday, replicating an accident that destroyed an earlier test missile.
The SN9 spacecraft that exploded on its final landing, like the SN8 before it, was a test model of the heavy rocket developed by billionaire private space company Elon Musk to transport humans and 100 lots of cargo on future missions to the Moon and Mars.
Live feed of Starship SN9 flight test → https://t.co/Hs5C53qBxb https://t.co/ioM0D5J91I
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 2, 2021
The 16-story self-guided missile initially ascended into the clear blue South Texas skies from the Gulf Coast launch pad on what emerged from SpaceX's live broadcast coverage to be a flawless launch.
The spacecraft reached its peak altitude of about 10 kilometers (6 miles), then flew momentarily in the air, stopped its engines, and performed a planned "belly-flipping" maneuver to descend under aerodynamic control toward Earth.
The problem occurred when the spacecraft, after turning its nose up again to initiate its descent sequence, attempted to reactivate two of the Raptor's three thrusters, but one of them failed to ignite.
Then the missile fell to the ground quickly, exploding into a rising ball of flame, smoke, and debris - 6 minutes 26 seconds after launch.
The SN8 spacecraft, the first prototype to fly in a high-altitude test launch, was met with a similar fate in December. There were no injuries in either of the two incidents.
A SpaceX commentator on Tuesday's launch webcast said the missile's flight to its test altitude, along with most of its subsonic re-entry, "looks very good and stable, as we saw last December."
"We just need to work on this landing a little bit," the commentator said, adding, "This may be a test flight, and this is the second time we have launched a spacecraft with this configuration."
There was no immediate comment from Musk, who also heads Tesla hours, the electrical industry, on Twitter. Musk said he plans to stay away from the social media platform "for some time."
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it would oversee an investigation into the landing accident Tuesday, as it did in the wake of the previous explosion - an investigation that exposed tensions between Musk and the agency.
SpaceX conducted the launch in December "without proof" that the public safety risks posed by "the excessive pressure of a long-range explosion" met the requirements of a regulatory permit, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
But the agency said the "corrective measures" the company took at a later time were approved by the Federal Aviation Administration and incorporated into Tuesday's launch.
"We do not expect any further enforcement action on the SN8 case," the agency's statement said.
Last week, Musk tweeted that "the Federal Aviation Administration's space division is characterized by a fundamentally disrupted organizational structure" that "humanity will never reach Mars" under its rules.
The Starship complete rocket, which will reach 394 feet (120 meters) when mated with an extremely 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.
The first orbital space flight is planned for the end of the year. Musk said he intends to fly Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa around the moon aboard the spacecraft in 2023.
0 Comments