How the SpaceX spaceship prototype exploded on landing
The aircraft conducted a test flight about 12 kilometers above sea level.
2 min read
This Wednesday, SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space exploration firm, Starship project suffered a severe blow when the prototype of the SN8 spacecraft exploded while undergoing an unscheduled disassembly test.
The explosion can be seen towards the end of the video:
See the Starship altitude test live → https://t.co/Hs5C53qBxb https://t.co/sEMe4firi6
– SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 9, 2020
After a suborbital flight test, the unmanned aircraft tried to land at 12 kilometers above sea level.
Musk had previously said that “many things have to go right” for the test to be successful. However, he congratulated the Space X team on the other positive results the test produced.
The pressure in the fuel tank was low during landing, resulting in a high touchdown speed and RUD, but we got all the data we needed! Congratulations SpaceX Team Hell yeah !!
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2020
“Fuel tank pressure was low during landing, resulting in high landing speed,” Musk’s tweet read in Spanish.
SpaceX also posted on its website that even if there was an explosion, “it would not necessarily be a failure for the flight”.
