SpaceX Mars rocket prototype detonates on landing

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The missile’s three engines were ignited, shut down and then re-ignited for landing as planned, but the missile erupted in a fireball as it returned to the launch pad. It was not immediately clear what went wrong.

S.PaceX engineer John Insprucker said during the company’s live stream that much of the test flight “looked very good” and engineers could collect data to improve the design of the spaceship in flight, which reached about 10 km, or six miles, high.

“We demonstrated the ability to transfer the engines to the landing propellant tanks, the subsonic return looked very good and stable,” said Insprucker. “We still have to work on that landing.”

The test launch comes after the 160-foot-high prototype of the rocket stranded on the launch pad in Texas last weekend. It was set to take off for the test launch last week, but it remained grounded because SpaceX violated a public safety agreement with federal regulators during an earlier test launch, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Starship | SN9 | High altitude flight test
Last Thursday, with Starship SN9 powered and able to launch anytimet, the FAA sent a startling opinion that said the launch had been scrubbed.
The FAA, which oversees US airspace and issues missile launches, ordered SpaceX to halt operations at its testing facilities in South Texas “that could compromise public safety,” the agency said. After previously declining to comment on its investigation, which was first reported by The Verge, the FAA said Tuesday that it concluded this week that SpaceX has “taken corrective action” and is now complying with public safety rules. The agency did not disclose the nature of the public safety issue or what corrective action was taken.
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According to a statement from the agency, the FAA has restored SpaceX’s permission to launch its rocket prototypes late Monday.

The company has not responded to requests for comment for this story, nor has it responded to requests for comment in more than eight months.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who used Twitter publicly bash the FAA last week, wrote Tuesday morning that he would be “Not on Twitter for a while. “

At the root of the gap between SpaceX and the FAA was a test launch SpaceX conducted in December of a prototype known as Starship SN8, one of a series of early prototypes the company built in its efforts to build a rocket. designs showing the first humans to Mars. Prior to that launch, SpaceX had “filed for a waiver to exceed the maximum public risk allowed by federal security regulations,” the FAA said, but the agency rejected that request.

But SpaceX went ahead with the test launch anyway, launching the vehicle on a high-altitude “hop test”, successfully reaching the desired height and performing a series of in-air acrobatics before explosively crashing into its launch site.

It’s not clear whether the FAA would have investigated the company, regardless of whether SN8 landed successfully.

Space X's prototype rocket detonated yesterday. This is what happened during the flight

The FAA was already focused on reconfiguring its launch licensing process to make it more “streamlined.” But it’s not clear whether the updated procedures, which are expected to go into effect in the near future, would have helped SpaceX quickly gain permission to relax public safety restrictions on its launch permit.

SpaceX had already assembled yet another Starship prototype, SN10. It’s not clear when the company will try to launch it, but over the weekend the company rolled the vehicle out of a launch pad next to where the SN9 took off.

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