SpaceX: Starship SN10 successfully lands in Texas
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Starship SN10’s test flight at Boca Chica, South Texas, on Wednesday, March 3, was hailed a major milestone for SpaceX. The 164ft-tall rocket launched to an altitude of 32,000ft (10km) after which it dropped to the ground and touched down in one piece – a landing the previous two iterations, SN8 and SN9, failed. John Insprucker, SpaceX’s principal integration engineer said last night: “Third time’s a charm, as the saying goes.
“We’ve had a successful touchdown on the landing pad that’s capping a beautiful test flight of Starship 10.”
But while SpaceX fans worldwide celebrated the historic moment for Elon Musk’s, 49, company, disaster was brewing inside of the SN10.
About eight minutes after landing, the rocket was blown to smithereens.
A ball of flames instantly engulfed the launchpad and SN10’s smouldering carcass was thrown in the air.
The unexpected explosion led some to jokingly call SN10 the first Starship prototype to launch twice and land once.
SpaceX has not yet revealed what caused the launch pad disaster but the rocket most likely suffered damage during its landing.
Starship appears to have hit the launch pad fairly hard, which possibly caused a leak of methane.
The methane then may have ignited, blowing the rocket up and taking the world by surprise.
Mr Musk later replied on Twitter to Tim Dodd of Everyday Astronaut: “RIP SN10, honourable discharge.”
Third time’s a charm, as the saying goes
John Insprucker, SpaceX principal integration engineer
How soon could SpaceX launch the SN11 after SN10’s explosion?
According to Mr Insprucker, the SN11 iteration is ready and rearing to go.
He said: “The Texas team has several more suborbital test vehicles in build, with number 11 ready to roll out to the pad in the very near future
He also took to Twitter last night where he said: “Time for #11…Geronimo!”
But SpaceX’s Starship programme has so far proven equal parts rapid and chaotic.
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SN10 was only the third Starship prototype to launch from Boca Chica on a high-altitude flight, a month after the doomed flight of SN9.
SN9 crashed into the launch pad on February 2, two months after the flight of the SN8.
Before the SN8, SpaceX only launched scaled-down Starship prototypes without nosecones or wings.
The SN6 and SN5 models launched on brief, 500ft hops in September and August 2020, respectively.
If SpaceX follows a similar test flight schedule, SN11 could be ready to launch within one or two months.
Elon Musk discusses future of SpaceX's Starship system
There are, of course, many factors that will decide the next launch date and Starship’s flights so far have been fraught with delays.
The company will first need to spruce up the damaged launchpad.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is also bound to investigate the circumstances surrounding last night’s explosion and that could throw a spanner in the works.
The regulator investigated both the SN8 and SN9, causing a delay to the latter’s launch in January.
The incident even led to Mr Musk publically clashing with the FAA.
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