SpaceX's Latest Prototype Starship Violently Explodes on Landing
Despite a successful launch.
Following the crash of the SN8 back in December, SpaceX looked to continue its quest to explore space with its latest SN9 prototype starship. Launching successfully from a Texas launch pad, the prototype rocket reached an altitude of over 32,000 feet. But upon re-entry, the latest starship from Elon Musk‘s private space-travel company experienced issues that caused it to crash into Earth in a fiery mess.
Despite the failed landing, SpaceX engineers are still calling the launch of the SN9 prototype starship a success. “So all told, another great [flight] — and a reminder, this is a test flight, the second time we’ve launched starship in this configuration,” said Principal Integration Engineer John Insprucker. “We’ve got a lot of good data, and [achieved] the primary objective to demonstrate control of the vehicle and the subsonic re-entry.”
With SN10 already built and ready to launch, SpaceX is set to continue the development of its Falcon rockets, which so far only return to Earth with parts to be reused, until they can create an entirely reusable space ship.
Watch the full launch of SpaceX’s SN9 prototype starship above and get a better look at the crash below.
So awesome. You get SO MUCH DATA like this. They’re going to figure this out. Good work @SpaceX pic.twitter.com/60ye06I66j
— Smarter Every Day (@smartereveryday) February 2, 2021
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