SCREENSHOTS TAKEN BY ROXANNA MIRANDA FROM THE NASA SPACE FLIGHT WEBSITE LIVESTREAM
Alejandra Yañez | THE RIDER
SpaceX’s latest Starship prototype, SN9, exploded upon landing Tuesday during a high-altitude test flight at the Boca Chica launch site.
The spacecraft was in the air about 2:25 p.m. and had a six-minute flight reaching an altitude of 10 kilometers, before crashing into the landing site.
The 165-foot-tall prototype also performed the same horizontal flip as its predecessor, SN8. This flip is being practiced by SpaceX to replicate the position that the craft would be in during an operational reentry to Earth from space, according to Space.com.
During the webcast for the launch John Insprucker, a U.S. Air Force Reserve officer and principal integration flight engineer for SpaceX, provided comments on the test flight.
“The subsonic reentry looked really good and stable like we saw again last December,” Insprucker said after the flight test. “So, we got a lot of good data on flap control and, again, we just gotta work on that landing a little bit.”
The high-altitude flight test appeared to be promising until its landing, when SN9 met a similar fate to SN8 by exploding upon touchdown.
The craft was not able to slow down its velocity in time for the landing. Thus, it was also unable to revert back to its fully vertical position in order to land successfully.
“We demonstrated the ability to transition the engines to the landing propellant tanks,” Insprucker said.
Fans of SpaceX showed their support on the company’s YouTube webcast, leaving comments such as, “SN10 will be the one!” and “Remember falcon 9 landed on it’s 5th try!”
As previously reported by The Rider, the 165-foot-tall Starship vehicle will eventually launch from Earth attached to a giant rocket (Super Heavy), which has not been tested in prototype form yet, according to space.com.
Together, the Starship vehicle and Super Heavy will be 394 feet tall.
“SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket (collectively referred to as Starship) represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond,” as stated on the SpaceX website. “Starship will be the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, with the ability to carry in excess of 100 metric tonnes to Earth orbit.”
While SN9 went out with a bang, attempts for a new prototype are already underway, according to Insprucker.
“We’ll be back with a new Starship in the near future,” he said before signing off.
