A prototype of the future SpaceX giant Starship rocket took off on Wednesday, December 9, during an altitude test flight from the Texas coast, but the landing was more than hard: the rocket s 'is crushed in a large ball of fire.
“Great test.
Congratulations to the Starship team! ”
However, was the message displayed by SpaceX on a banner in front of the image of the pile of ash that the large metal cylinder has become.
SpaceX wants to make Starship its rocket of choice to go to Mars one day.
Read also: SpaceX makes a successful historic launch to the International Space Station
Wednesday's prototype took off correctly, gradually ascending in altitude and on an apparently straight course.
Then one of the three engines went out, before a second.
After 4 minutes and 45 seconds of flight, the third extinguished and the rocket began to return to the ground, assuming the expected prone position.
A few seconds before landing, the engines were restarted in order to put her upright, in the landing position, and to slow her fall.
But the speed seemed too great, and the contact too brutal, and the machine exploded on the ground.
Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, in a tweet congratulated himself on the successful stages: the ascent, the change of position in altitude, and the precision of the trajectory to the point of landing.
Smaller prototypes have already flown a few hundred meters above sea level for less than a minute, several exploded, in a series of tests aimed at developing at high speed the next generation of rockets from the company founded by Elon Musk, also creator of electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla.
The purpose of the test of this prototype called SN8 (Starship serial number 8) was to test the aerodynamic behavior, the return to Earth and the landing, vertically, which is the specialty of SpaceX with its current rocket, the Falcon 9 , world leader in private satellite launches.
"With such tests, we do not measure success by the number of specific objectives fulfilled but rather by what we learn"
, had written preventively on its site the company, saying implicitly that an explosion or a crash were still a risk but that they were part of the industrial adventure.
The construction of the next prototype, SN9, is also almost completed.
Before Mars, the Moon
These tests are taking place in a near-deserted area leased by SpaceX in Boca Chica, Cameron County, in the far south of Texas near the Mexican border on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico - an area empty enough for 'an accident or explosion does not cause damage or cause victims.
It is also in Texas that Elon Musk announced Tuesday that he was moving from California.
The future rocket will consist of the manned spaceship and a first stage called Super Heavy equipped with 37 engines instead of 9, all measuring 120 meters in height and capable of carrying 100 tons in orbit around the Earth.
Elon Musk imagines one day launching several of these ships to conquer Mars.
But initially, the rocket, if it became operational, could prove useful for closer trips, especially to the Moon, where NASA wants to restore a lasting presence from 2024.
Starship is also the vehicle with which Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa is supposed to go around the moon, in theory in 2023, a trip at the confidential price.