The Starship SN9 prototype is being launched from the company’s development unit in Boca Chica, Texas.
SpaceX
SpaceX successfully landed a Starship prototype on Wednesday after a high-altitude flight test, marking an important step for Elon Musk in rocket development.
But minutes after it landed slowly on a concrete slab, the prototype rocket exploded. The cause or intent of the explosion was not immediately clear.
The company’s test flew with the Starship Serial Number 10 or SN10 missile. SpaceX aims to launch the prototype up to 10 kilometers, or about 32,800 feet altitude.
The Starship prototype is about 150 feet high or about the size of a 15-story building and is powered by three Raptor rocket engines.
Musk’s company is developing Starship in order to launch cargo and people on missions to the Moon and Mars.
The SN10 flight was similar to those performed by SpaceX in December and February, when it tested the SN8 and SN9 prototypes, respectively. Both previous missiles met several development objectives – including testing aerodynamics, stopping successive engines and twisting for landing orientation – but both prototypes exploded on impact as they tried to land, unable to slow down enough.
Like the SN8 and SN9, the purpose of the SN10 flight was not necessarily to reach maximum altitude, but rather to test several key parts of the Starship system. The Starship prototype is about 150 feet high or about the size of a 15-story building and is powered by three Raptor rocket engines. SpaceX will start all three take-off engines and then stop them one by one in order as they approach the peak of the intended flight altitude.
SN10 will aim to transfer fuel from the main tanks to the head tanks and then overturn the “belly” re-entry maneuver in order to control its descent through the air with the four flap flaps. Then, in the last moments of descent, SpaceX will turn the rocket to a vertical orientation and will launch the Raptor engines to slow down for a landing attempt.
Starship is one of two “Manhattan Projects” that SpaceX is developing simultaneously, the other being its Starlink satellite internet program. Musk previously estimated that it would cost about $ 5 billion for the full development of Starship, although SpaceX did not disclose how much it has spent so far on the program.
The company last month brought in $ 850 million in its latest fundraiser, valued at $ 74 billion.
Musk remains “extremely confident” that Starship “will be safe enough for human transport by 2023” – an ambitious goal given that the company has begun developing and testing the missile in earnest in early 2019.
But Musk’s timeline is crucial, as Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa paid for a Starship flight around the month until 2023. Maezawa announced Tuesday that he is inviting eight members of the public to join his DearMoon mission, which will be a six-day trip. to the moon and back.
Subscribe to CNBC PRO for exclusive statistics and analysis, and live scheduling on weekdays around the world.