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The third time was almost the charm for SpaceX’s last flight test.
Space company Elon Musk conducted a test flight of its prototype SN10 Starship on Wednesday, and made a soft landing, although the landing legs appeared to malfunction and a fire appeared to light up when the vehicle landed. A few minutes later, the spacecraft exploded on the landing pad.
The test saw the spacecraft fly more than 6 miles and conduct a “belly down” maneuver before straightening up to land vertically with a slight tilt.
In this image from a video released by SpaceX, one of the company’s Starship prototypes fires its propellers when it landed during a test in Boca Chica, Texas, on Wednesday, March 3, 2021. The previous two attempts ended in explosions. (SpaceX via
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The unmanned flight was SpaceX’s third high altitude suborbital test for one of its spacecraft prototypes. The last test, in early February, ended with the SN9 prototype exploding during its descent.
The reusable spacecraft – when it doesn’t explode – uses an on-board computer to control its descent to a landing pad. SpaceX made the Starship perform a “flip landing maneuver” before touching the ground, using the Raptor engines again to slow its descent and land vertically.
An earlier launch attempt on Wednesday was aborted “at the slightly conservative high-thrust limit,” Musk tweeted. “Increasing the thrust limit and recycling the propellant for another flight attempt today.”
The SN10 prototype was powered by three of SpaceX’s Raptor engines.
The starship is 160 feet high and 30 feet in diameter. It is designed to carry passengers and cargo, and SpaceX claims it can carry more than 100 metric tons in orbit.
In this image from a video released by SpaceX, one of the company’s Starship prototypes fires its propellers when it landed during a test in Boca Chica, Texas, on Wednesday, March 3, 2021. The previous two attempts ended in explosions. (SpaceX via
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It is one of three spacecraft that NASA planned for future lunar missions, and SpaceX said it plans that its spacecraft will eventually travel to Mars. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa is expected to become one of SpaceX’s first civilian passengers on a mission that will make a lunar flyby, according to SpaceX. This flight is scheduled for 2023.
The test flight took place at SpaceX’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas. Musk recently made a personal move to the state of Lone Star, and FOX Business reported this week that SpaceX is adding a third facility in Texas with a plant in Austin.