1. Guest
  2. Login | Subscribe
 
     
Forgot Login?  

FREE Newsletter Subscription, Click The 'Subscribe' Button Below To Subscribe!

Weekday News Bulletin

PortMac.News FREE Weekday Email News Bulletin

Be better informed, subscribe to our FREE weekday news Update service here:

PortMac Menu

This Page Code

Page-QR-Code

A prototype of SpaceX's Starship rocket has exploded during a landing attempt minutes after a high-altitude experimental launch in Texas - no one was injured in the explosion.

Source : PortMac.News | Street :

Source : PortMac.News | Street | News Story:

main-block-ear
 
SpaceX Starship prototype SN9 explodes on landing after test
A prototype of SpaceX's Starship rocket has exploded during a landing attempt minutes after a high-altitude experimental launch in Texas - no one was injured in the explosion.

News Story Summary:

This was a repeat of an accident that destroyed a previous test rocket, the SN8, in December.

The Starship SN9, which blew up on its final descent, was a test model of the heavy-lift rocket being developed by US billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's private space company.

The final Starship rocket is expected to carry humans and 100,000 kilograms of cargo on future missions to the Moon and Mars.

The self-guided, 16-storey-tall rocket initially soared into the clear, blue South Texas sky from its Gulf Coast launch pad on what appeared from SpaceX's livestream coverage to be a flawless lift-off.

Reaching its peak altitude of about 10 kilometres, the spacecraft then hovered momentarily in mid-air, shut off its engines and executed a planned "belly-flop" maneuverer to descend nose-down under aerodynamic control back toward Earth.

The trouble came when the Starship — after flipping its nose upward again to begin its landing sequence — tried to reactivate two of its three Raptor thrusters, but one failed to ignite.

The rocket then fell rapidly to the ground in a roaring ball of flames, smoke and debris — six minutes and 26 seconds after launch. No injuries were reported.

The Starship SN8, the first prototype to fly in a high-altitude test launch, met a similar fate in December.

A SpaceX commentator for Tuesday's launch webcast said the rocket's flight to its test altitude, along with most of the ship's subsonic re-entry, "looked very good and stable, like we saw last December".

"We just have to work on that landing a little bit," the commentator said, adding, "This is a test flight, the second time we've flown Starship in this configuration."

He said SpaceX engineers would pore through data collected from the test to determine what went wrong, and "we'll be back with another Starship in the near future".

There was no immediate comment from Mr Musk, who also heads the electric carmaker Tesla and tweeted early on Tuesday, hours before the test SpaceX launch, that he planned to take a hiatus from Twitter "for a while".

The complete Starship rocket, which will stand 120 metres tall when mated with its super-heavy first-stage booster, is the company's next-generation fully reusable launch vehicle — the centre of Mr Musk's ambitions to make human space travel more affordable and routine.

The rocket system is partially funded by NASA and could end up being offered to the US military.

A first orbital flight of Starship is planned for the end of this year, and Musk has said he intends to fly Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa around the Moon and back with the Starship in 2023.

Source | Reuters


Same | News Story' Author : Staff-Editor-02

Users | Click above to view Staff-Editor-02's 'Member Profile'

Share This Information :

Submit to DeliciousSubmit to DiggSubmit to FacebookSubmit to Google PlusSubmit to StumbleuponSubmit to TechnoratiSubmit to TwitterSubmit to LinkedIn

Add A Comment :


Security code

Please enter security code from above or Click 'Refresh' for another code.

Refresh


All Comments are checked by Admin before publication

Guest Menu

All Content & Images Copyright Portmac.news & Xitranet© 2013-2024 | Site Code : 03601