After a mostly successful test flight of the SpaceX spacecraft over Texas on Tuesday, the prototype spacecraft returned to crash-land, similar to another test the company completed last month.
The company planned to test another prototype of Starship, known as Series No. 9, or SN9 last week, but the Federal Aviation Administration had not yet granted SpaceX launch approval for the flight. On Tuesday, they obtained FAA approval.
SN9 was launched 10 miles from the company’s site in Boca Chica, Texas, a small coastal town along the Gulf of Mexico, north of the Rio Grande.
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The bright spaceship powered by three Raptor engines had an unbroken flight of up to 10 kilometers and then each engine began to shut down, allowing SN9 to perform a belly drop maneuver and head downhill to to land.
“SN9’s Raptor engines will restart when the vehicle attempts a landing flip maneuver immediately before touching the landing platform adjacent to the launch pad,” according to SpaceX.
SN9 exploded after the impact leaving a cloud of dust in its path.
“We have to work a little bit on this landing,” SpaceX engineer John Insprucker said after the explosion, recalling it was a test.
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USA: Exploded Starship SN9, a prototype rocket of #SpaceX, After crashing into the landing pad during a test in Boca Chica, Texas pic.twitter.com/hoGvvF6RrP
– C5N (@ C5N) February 2, 2021