The launch and subsequent destruction of SpaceX’s Starship SN11 prototype was obscured by heavy fog Tuesday morning at the company’s Boca Chica site.
SN11 launched at 8 a.m., piercing the fog bank and flying to approximately 33,000 feet before beginning a successful “belly flop” descent. At less than six minutes into the flight and seconds before landing, the ship exploded and rained debris over the launch site.
“At least the crater is in the right place!” tweeted SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk half and hour after the explosion.
A few minutes later he tweeted: “Looks like engine 2 had issues on ascent & didn’t reach operating chamber pressure during landing burn, but, in theory, it wasn’t needed,” Musk tweeted soon after the crash. “Something significant happened shortly after landing burn start. Should know what it was once we can examine the bits later today.”
It was the fourth high-altitude launch of a Starship prototype. So far SpaceX has managed to land one full-size Starship without destroying it. The March 3 flight of the SN10 ended in a successful touch down, though the rocket exploded less than 10 minutes after landing.
Musk also commented that “a high production rate solves many ills.” SpaceX is building Starship prototypes for testing as quickly as possible to speed development of the spacecraft that’s being designed to carry humans to the Moon and Mars someday. The company is skipping ahead to SN15, which will be rolled out to the launch pad “in a few days,” Musk tweeted, adding that ideally it will address whatever doomed SN11.
“It has hundreds of design improvements across structures, avionics/software & engine,” he said. “Hopefully, one of those improvements covers this problem. If not, then retrofit will add a few more days (to rollout).”
