(Reuters) – The third time seemed to be the charm of Elon Musk’s Starship rocket – until it wasn’t.
SpaceX’s latest heavy launch vehicle prototype flew perfectly in the sky in a high altitude takeoff test on Wednesday from Boca Chica, Texas, then flew back to Earth to make the first vertical landing for a model starship.
But the triumph was short-lived. Slanted slightly to the side while an automated fire suppression system directed a flow of water to the flames that were still burning at the base of the rocket, the spacecraft shattered about eight minutes after the touch.
It was the third landing attempt to end in a fireball after a successful test flight for the starship, developed by SpaceX to transport humans and 100 tons of cargo on future missions to the moon and Mars.
For Musk, the billionaire founder of SpaceX who also runs electric car maker Tesla Inc, the result was mixed news.
The Starship SN10 came much closer to achieving a safe vertical touch than the two previous models – SN8 in December and SN9 in February. In a tweet responding to the moderate congratulations of an admirer of his work, Musk replied, “RIP SN10, honorable discharge.”
The video feed provided by SpaceX on the company’s YouTube channel was interrupted moments after landing. But separate fan feeds from the same social media platform showed an explosion suddenly bursting at the base of the rocket, throwing the SN10 into the air before it crashed to the ground and was engulfed in flames.
The complete Starship rocket, which will be 120 meters high when combined with its super heavyweight first-stage propeller, is SpaceX’s next generation fully reusable launch vehicle – the center of Musk’s ambitions to make human space travel more accessible and routine .
A first orbital flight from a starship is planned for the end of the year. Musk said he plans to fly Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa around the moon with the starship in 2023.
Steve Gorman in Los Angeles and Joe Shaw in Washington; Kenneth Maxwell edition