Starship: SN9 prototype explodes when trying to land after first test flight

On: February 03, 2021

After almost a week of standoffs with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the agency that handles the regulation of flights in the United States, SpaceX finally managed to carry out the first test flight with the SN9 prototype of the Starship vehicle, this Tuesday ( two). The vehicle reached an altitude of 10 km, but ended up exploding in a fireball when it landed - just like the flight of the previous prototype, the SN8.

The 50 m high vehicle appeared to fly at the very beginning of the test. The three Raptor engines were shut down in sequence as expected when the rocket reached 10 km altitude. Then, the vehicle performed a horizontal maneuver similar to what would be done during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere during an operational flight.

Even with everything going well during the flight, the problems started during the descent: while trying to return to the vertical position to land, the rocket ended up descending at an incorrect angle, which resulted in a huge explosion when touching the ground. The unopened SN10 prototype was close to where the SN9 exploded but did not appear to be affected.

Despite the explosion, SpaceX integration engineer John Insprucker celebrated the test during the online broadcast: “We had another great flight, we just need to do a little bit of landing,” he said.

Check out the collage below, which shows the flight's progress from the beginning to the explosion:

According to Insprucker, the ability to transition from the engines to the landing propellant tanks was successfully demonstrated: “the re-entry seemed very good and stable just like the one we saw in December, so we have great data on flap control”, he added. That's because the predecessor SN8 prototype had a similar fate at the end of its flight test in December, and also exploded, but its flight was considered a success anyway.

The SN8 flight violated the FAA's launch license, which resulted in an investigation that ended up delaying the SN9 test. Now, the agency will also analyze yesterday's flight. As the final version of the Starship approaches, SpaceX has been working on increasingly complex models: the first prototypes had only a Raptor engine, and reached a maximum altitude of 150 m; the SN8, for example, was the first vehicle with three engines to fly in the first high-altitude flight test ever conducted.

These are not the first prototypes of the rocket that ended up in explosions: due to a failure during the cryogenic test, the SN1 ended up crushed like a soda can. SN3 was also destroyed, and SN4 had a similar fate. There are still no set dates for the flight test of the SN10 prototype, which is already in the launch base.

SpaceX has been working on the Starship to, in the future, use it to transport cargo and up to 100 people to the Moon, Mars, and other distant destinations. The system will consist of the vehicle of the same name and the Super Heavy booster, with the final version of the Starship having six Raptor engines, while the Super Heavy should have about 30 of them. Agile development and testing of the prototypes are necessary for the rocket to take action in the near future - not least because Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, has set an ambitious timetable: according to him, it is possible that the Starship can already travel on a non-mission manned to Mars in 2024.

Source: Phys.org, Futurism, Space.com

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