Starship test flight crash-lands in fireball
SpaceX launched its shiny, bulletshaped, straight-out-of-science fiction Starship several kilometres into the air from a remote corner of Texas yesterday, but the 6 1/2-minute test flight ended in an explosive fireball at touchdown.
It was the highest and most elaborate flight yet for the rocketship that Elon Musk says could carry people to Mars in as little as six years. Despite the catastrophic end, he was thrilled. “Mars, here we come!!” he tweeted. This latest prototype — the first one equipped with a nose cone, body flaps and three engines — was shooting for an altitude of up to 12.5km. That’s almost 100 times higher than previous hops and skimming the stratosphere.
Starship seemed to hit the mark or at least come close.
The full-scale, stainless steel model — 50m tall and 9m in diameter — soared out over the Gulf of Mexico.
After about five minutes, it flipped sideways as planned and descended in a free-fall back to the southeastern tip of Texas near the Mexican border.
The Raptor engines reignited for braking and the rocket tilted back upright. When it touched down, however, the rocketship became engulfed in flames and ruptured, parts scattering. The entire flight lasted six minutes and 42 seconds.
Musk called it a “successful ascent” and said the body flaps precisely guided the rocket to the landing point. The fuel tank pressure was low when the engines reignited for touchdown, which caused Starship to come down too fast. “But we got all the data we needed!” he tweeted.
SpaceX intends to use Starship to put satellites into orbit around Earth, besides delivering people and cargo to the moon and Mars.