SpaceX gave an early Christmas gift to space fans everywhere this week with an amazing video recapping their first major test launch of a Starship rocket.
The video, which SpaceX revealed on Wednesday (December 23), shows the first high-altitude launch of its giant spacecraft SN8, a rocket prototype for a fully reusable space launch system for trips to the Moon and Mars. SpaceX launched the Starship SN8 on December 8 from a platform at its test facility near the village of Boca Chica in southern Texas.
“12-story rocket shuts down its engines and makes a controlled crash,” CEO and founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk wrote on Twitter.
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During December 8, SpaceX’s SN8 spacecraft was launched at an altitude of about 12.5 kilometers using its three Raptor engines. At its peak, the rocket shut down its engines and did a “belly jump” to make a controlled glide to a landing site near its launch pad.
Just before the touch, the Starship SN8 started one of its engines once again to spin the rocket and attempt a vertical landing similar to those performed regularly by the SpaceX Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters. But the rocket landed a little too fast due to lower pressure in the fuel tank than expected, causing it to crash and explode into a glowing fireball.
In the new video, SpaceX captures that moment with a camera just below the booster on the airstrip, as well as from afar. Musk and SpaceX celebrated the launch test despite the explosion, adding that the mission proved Starship’s ability not only to launch on the company’s new Raptor engines, but also to glide back to Earth for a landing site.
“SN8 was great!” Musk wrote on Twitter on December 9. “Until it reached its peak it would have been great, so controlling all the way to getting the crater in place was epic.”
“Mars, here we go,” Musk wrote later.
SpaceX expressed similar feelings in the recap video.
“SN8 demonstrated an unprecedented controlled aerodynamic descent and a flip landing maneuver,” says SpaceX in the video. “Together, they will allow the landing where there are no runways, including the moon, Mars and beyond.”
Musk said the company can save the SN8 wreckage to preserve your memory.
In fact, NASA chose SpaceX’s Starship vehicle as a candidate for manned moon landing missions under its Artemis program. The company’s final spacecraft vehicle will include the spacecraft and a reusable booster called Super Heavy to launch missions into deep space.
SpaceX is already working hard to prepare its next prototype spacecraft, the SN9 rocket, for its own test launch, possibly later this month. The rocket required some extra work earlier this month, after seemed to tilt slightly inside his hangar in Boca Chica, according to images captured by observers of the ship and posted on Twitter.
Sunrise with Starship SN9 at the SpaceX Boca Chica launch site. 🤩🚀😍 @ NASASpaceflight https://t.co/lQVrVVV5nH pic.twitter.com/Vzf8aXBcoFDecember 23, 2020
But the rocket has already been launched on its launch pad.
“Next: SN9,” said SpaceX.
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