News Link: SpaceX’s Starship Prototype Explodes After Test Launch – By MK (Editor)
SpaceX’s Starship prototype explodes on landing after test launch. On Wednesday after an otherwise successful test launch from the company’s rocket facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
The 16-story-tall prototype for the heavy-lift launch vehicle being developed by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s private space company. It was able to carry humans and 100 tons of cargo on future missions to the moon and Mars.
The self-guided rocket blew up as it touched down on a landing pad following a controlled descent. The test flight had been intended to reach an altitude of 41,000 feet. Propelled by three of SpaceX’s newly developed Raptor engines for the first time. But the company left unclear whether the rocket had flown that high.
Musk said in a tweet immediately following the landing mishap. “rocket’s fuel header tank pressure was low” during descent, “causing touchdown velocity to be high.”
He added that SpaceX had obtained “all the data we needed” from the test. And hailed the rocket’s ascent phase a success.
SpaceX made its first attempt to launch Starship on Tuesday. But a problem with its Raptor engines forced an automatic abort just one second before liftoff.
The complete Starship rocket, which will stand 394-feet tall when mated with its super-heavy first-stage booster. It is the company’s next-generation fully reusable launch vehicle. Which is the center of Musk’s ambitions to make human space travel more affordable and routine.
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News Link: SpaceX’s Starship Prototype Explodes after Test Launch
