SpaceX's Starship Makes 1st Successful Landing, As Elon Musk Gets Closer To Mars
SpaceX's Starship SN10 prototype took off for a high-altitude flight test before successfully touching down and coming to a stop in a vertical position on the launchpad in Boca Chica Texas on Wednesday local time. However the StarshipSN10 spacecraft and rocket exploded shortly after landing and sitting on theLaunchpad for a few minutes in what is sure to be a blemish on an otherwise historic evening for Elon Musk.
In Elon Musk's goal to reach Mars, SpaceX's Starship prototype took a giant stride by completing its first successful landing after multiple failed attempts.
SpaceX // YouTube
ALSO READ: Like Him Or Not, Elon Musk Is A Genius And SpaceX Has Done All Of Us Proud
SpaceX's Starship SN10 prototype took off for a high-altitude flight test before successfully touching down and coming to a stop in a vertical position on the launchpad in Boca Chica, Texas on Wednesday local time.
However, the Starship SN10 spacecraft and rocket exploded shortly after landing and sitting on the launchpad for a few minutes, in what is sure to be a blemish on an otherwise historic evening for Elon Musk and everyone at SpaceX.
SpaceX Starship Test Flights
The Starship SN10 flight that successfully touched down in one piece comes after unsuccessful landing attempts by Starship SN8 and SN9 test flights conducted in December and February, respectively.
ALSO READ: Elon Musk's SpaceX Makes Mars Top Priority For Starship, With Human Landing By 2025
YouTube
Both the earlier SN8 and SN9 flights, however, completed several successful milestones like aerodynamic achievements, flipping the Starship to reorient it in a landing position, multiple engine shutdowns, and so on. It has to be said that the current Starship SN10 success comes on the back of lessons learned from SN8 and SN9 flights.
According to SpaceX, the mission objective for Starship SN10 prototype was to take off and reach a high-altitude of 10 kilometre or about 33,000 feet, with no onboard passengers obviously as the spacecraft took off and landed autonomously.
Explosion after soft-landing
What's unknown right now is the cause of the Starship SN10's explosion minutes after it successfully soft-landed and stood vertically on the launchpad.
An amazing shot of Starship SN10's post-landing Rapid Unplanned Disassembly (RUD) after Wednesday's test flight.
¡ª Chris B - NSF (@NASASpaceflight) March 3, 2021
??https://t.co/bOsEo1u0u0 pic.twitter.com/FmNtYBFmIe
Elon Musk doesn't like to call it an explosion, he has a euphemistic name for these things -- Rapid Unplanned Disassembly. But even Elon Musk or SpaceX haven't yet traced the exact reason behind the Starship SN10's unplanned explosion.
ALSO READ: Why Exploding Rockets Couldn't Stop Elon Musk's Genius In 2020
As we write this, Elon Musk and SpaceX have already announced a sub-orbital test flight of Starship SN11 in the very near future. Hopefully, it will just keep on standing boringly on the touchpad after landing, and not engage in any unplanned disassembly like the Starship SN10.
Elon Musk's SpaceX is developing the Starship prototype rockets with the sole intention of hauling cargo and eventually humans to Mars in a rapid albeit cost-effective manner, to make humanity a space-faring species ultimately -- which has always been the foundational goal of SpaceX for Elon Musk. With today's SN10 success, that goal has just inched closer.
ALSO READ: Humans Will Be On Mars In Just Over Five Years, Says Elon Musk
