Elon Musk reveals what blew up SpaceX’s Starship SN11 prototype

The latest prototype of SpaceX Starship, called SN11, met an explosive end last week like its three predecessors. But the conditions around the Great Boom were particularly mysterious, as dense fog and faulty cameras obscured details of his ultimate fate.

Company founder and CEO Elon Musk now has some details on what happened in the final moments of SN11. On Twitter Monday morning, Musk attributed the explosion to a fuel leak.

“A (relatively) small CH4 leak caused a fire on engine 2 and part of the fried avionics, causing a difficult start during an attempted burn on landing in a CH4 turbopump,” he said. -he writes.

The ascent phase, the transition to horizontal and the control during the free fall were good.

A (relatively) small CH4 leak caused a fire on engine 2 and a fried portion of the avionics, causing a difficult start during an attempted landing burn in a CH4 turbopump.

This is corrected in 6 ways until Sunday.

– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2021

SN11 launched from the company’s Starship Development Center in Texas on March 30 with zero visibility in the field. All went well when the vehicle – the final versions Musk hopes to send to the Moon and Mars in the years to come – climbed about 10 kilometers, then landed back to Earth. After performing his trademark flip maneuver in preparation for a burn on landing and a smooth touchdown, the onboard cameras froze during the SpaceX livestream.

Other remote-controlled live cameras pointed at the nearby airstrip captured an orange glow in the fog, followed by a debris storm raining down on the exclusion zone around the runway.

Two earlier prototypes, SN8 and SN9, both exploded on impact with a hard landing. SN10 blocked the landing, but then exploded on the landing pad a few minutes later. SN11 appears to be the first to explode just before hitting the ground.

So now we’ve seen a nice sample of how one of these prototypes can end up during the landing phase. There is reason to be optimistic that the next attempt will get better.

SpaceX will be moving to SN15, which would include a series of upgrades, Musk is quite excited that he has chosen to essentially remove SN12, SN13, and SN14.

SN15 is already assembled and being prepared for testing ahead of its debut. The hope is that one of the upcoming prototypes will not only survive the landing, but allow the company to proceed with the attempted first orbital flight for Starship as early as June.

Musk says he certainly doesn’t expect a repeat of the critical leak that led to the shell scatter anomaly seen last week.

“It settles in six ways until Sunday,” he tweeted.

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