SpaceX Starship rocket prototype nails landing … then explodes

(Reuters) – The third time it looked like the charm of Elon Musk’s Starship rocket, until it wasn’t.

SpaceX’s latest prototype heavy-launch vehicle took off flawlessly into the sky in a high-altitude test explosion Wednesday from Boca Chica, Texas, and then returned to Earth to make its first vertical landing for a Starship model.

But the triumph did not last long. Listing slightly to one side, while an automated fire suppression system trained a jet of water in flames that were still burning at the base of the rocket, the spacecraft broke about eight minutes after touching.

It was the third such attempt to land with a fireball after a successful test flight to the Starship, developed by SpaceX to transport humans and 100 tons of cargo in future missions to the Moon and Mars.

For Musk, the billionaire founder of SpaceX who also runs electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc., the result was mixed news.

The Starship SN10 was much closer to getting a vertical and safe touchdown than two previous models: SN8 in December and SN9 in February. In a tweet responding to the temperate congratulations of an admirer of his work, Musk responded, “RIP SN10, honorable download.”

The video channel provided by SpaceX on the company’s YouTube channel was cut moments after landing. But fan flows separated by the same social media platform showed an explosion that suddenly exploded at the base of the rocket and threw the SN10 into the air before it crashed to the ground and was surrounded by flames.

The full Starship rocket, which will last 120 meters in height when paired with its super-heavy first-stage booster, is the fully reusable launch vehicle of the new generation of SpaceX: the center of Musk’s ambitions to make more affordable travel to human space and routine.

A first orbital flight of the spacecraft is scheduled for later this year. Musk has said he intends to fly Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa around the moon with the spacecraft in 2023.