(Reuters) – The third time seemed to be the charm of Elon Musk’s Starship rocket – until it was.
SpaceX’s latest heavy vehicle launch prototype soared into the sky in a high-altitude test explosion Wednesday in Boca Chica, Texas, then flew back to Earth for its first vertical landing. Starship model.
But the triumph was short-lived. Slightly listing to one side, as an automatic fire suppression system draws a stream of water on flames still burning on the rocket, the spacecraft shattered about eight minutes after the touchdown.
It was the third such landing attempt that ended with a fireball after an otherwise successful test flight for Starship, being developed by SpaceX to transport people and 100 tons of cargo on future missions to the Moon and Mars.
For Musk, the billionaire founder of SpaceX, who also runs electric car maker Tesla Inc., the result was mixed news.
Starship SN10 came much closer to achieving a vertical and safe touchdown than the two previous models – SN8 in December and SN9 in February. In a tweet responding to the temperate congratulations of an admirer of his work, Musk replied, “RIP SN10, honorable discharge.”
The video feed provided by SpaceX on the company’s YouTube channel interrupted the moments after landing. But separate streams of fans transmitted on the same social platform showed an explosion that suddenly erupted at the base of the rocket, blowing SN10 into the air before it crashed to the ground and was engulfed in flames.
The full Starship rocket, which will be 120 meters (394 feet) high when paired with its super-heavy first-stage amplifier, is SpaceX’s next-generation fully reusable launch vehicle – the center of Musk’s ambitions makes human space travel more accessible and routine.
A first Starship orbital flight is planned for the end of the year. Musk said he plans to fly Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa around Starship in 2023.
Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles and Joe Shaw in Washington; Montage by Kenneth Maxwell