The company SN8 rocket launch test and Elon Musk congratulated the SpaceX team.
The Starship test ends, the spacecraft designed by SpaceX to one day bring humans to the Moon and Mars. Due to a malfunction of the engine the SN8 rocket crashed and exploded on contact with the ground.
Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, explained on social media that in the landing phase the pressure of the manifold was low, causing a high speed during the maneuver and the RUD (Rapid and unscheduled dissassembly) of the space carrier.
SpaceX considers the launch a success, despite the explosive landing. The Starship prototype, after take-off, remained in flight for about seven minutes, sufficient to acquire the data for the development of the carrier. The CEO, Elon Musk, congratulated on the success of the test.
“We got all the data we needed! Congratulations to the SpaceX team, hell yeah !!”, he tweeted.
The new rocket is designed to be fully reusable rather than partially reusable, as are the company’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, and to carry both cargo and passengers into space.“This suborbital flight is designed to test a range of objectives, from the way the vehicle’s three Raptor engines perform to the vehicle’s overall aerodynamic input capabilities (including body flaps) to how the vehicle handles the transition of the vehicle. propellant. SN8 will also attempt to perform a roll-over maneuver on landing, which would be a first for a vehicle of this size, ”SpaceX said in a statement on its website prior to testing.
Wednesday’s test was set to reach 41,000 feet in altitude. But as the carrier performed the flip maneuver to land in an upright position, the motor stopped running, resulting in a less soft landing than expected.
Earlier this year, the SN5 and SN6 prototypes of the Starship rocket performed short test flights of 500 feet. After SpaceX first launched astronauts into orbit last June, the company’s goal is to have humans travel to the Moon and Mars. This is why the Starship was designed.
