The latest prototype of the SpaceX spacecraft was launched on Tuesday, flying miles above its South Texas facility in a successful flight demonstration before it exploded during the landing attempt. It is the second consecutive failed landing, after a previous prototype, SN8, launched and failed to maintain the landing in December.
This week’s launch demonstration – one of many on record – follows weeks of tension between SpaceX and the Federal Aviation Administration, which approves test launches like this. During its high altitude test launch with SN8 two months ago, the company violated its FAA launch license. This sparked an investigation that delayed today’s SN9 flight and frustrated SpaceX’s CEO Elon Musk, The Verge reported last week.
In a statement on Tuesday morning announcing that the SN9 was ready to fly, the FAA confirmed the previous violation: Prior to the launch of the SN8, the agency denied a request from SpaceX to waive the public safety limits associated with the flight, but SpaceX launched the thing anyway. It is not yet clear what security limits SpaceX wanted to waive in relation to the launch. The FAA declined to specify and SpaceX has not yet responded for comment.
On Tuesday, with the FAA’s new approval for a flight plan that “complies with all federal safety regulations,” the 16-story rocket took off from SpaceX’s test facility in Boca Chica, Texas at around 3:30 pm ET under clear skies, reaching an altitude of 6.2 miles (10 km) – slightly lower than the SN8’s target altitude of 7.7 miles. After that, the SN9 shut down its three engines to begin a free-fall dance back to Earth, leaning sideways to test new aerodynamic flaps and attempting a “belly down” maneuver. If everything had gone well, the rocket would have landed vertically.
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Instead, SN9 hit the ground at an angle of approximately 45 degrees, dying in an explosive fireball like SN8. “We had another big flight to the 10 km heyday … we just have to do a little bit of work on that landing,” said SpaceX engineer John Insprucker, who usually only narrates the company’s live videos for routine Falcon 9 launches .
The FAA opened an investigation into the explosion of the SN9 landing, it said in a statement Tuesday night, adding that “although this was a test flight without screws, the investigation will identify the root cause of today’s crash and possible opportunities to further increase the security the program develops. “
The landing blast scattered debris on the SN10, another prototype starship that was ready for the next SpaceX test flight. The company removed the SN10 from its imposing rocket-shaped facility last Friday night to make room for future prototype construction.
In the live broadcast, Insprucker reminded the SpaceX audience that flight SN9, although it ended in a dramatic explosion, was a test and a series of test objectives were achieved. It was the “second time we flew the starship in this configuration, we have a lot of good data and the main objective of demonstrating the control of the vehicle in the subsonic reentry seemed to be very good. And we’re going to get a lot out of it, ”he said.