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SpaceX’s futuristic spacecraft appeared to have made a touchdown on Wednesday, but then exploded on the airstrip with such force it was thrown into the air.
The failure happened just minutes after SpaceX declared success. Two previous test flights crashed into fireballs.
The full-scale prototype of the Mars ship envisioned by Elon Musk climbed more than 10 kilometers after taking off from the southern tip of Texas on Wednesday. It descended horizontally over the Gulf of Mexico, then straightened up just in time to land.
The shiny bullet-shaped rocket remained intact this time on touchdown, prompting SpaceX commentator John Insprucker to declare, “The third time is a charm as they say” before SpaceX ended its webcast. of the test.
But then the ship exploded and was thrown into the air, before crashing to the ground in flames.
There was no immediate comment from SpaceX on what was wrong. But Musk looked on the bright side in a tweet: “Starship 10 has landed in one piece!” RIP SN10, honorable discharge. “
He added: “The SpaceX team is doing a great job! One day, the real measure of success will be that Starship flights become commonplace. “
Musk plans to use Starships to send people to the Moon and Mars.
The last two prototypes reached a similar altitude in December and February, but struck the ground in Boca Chica, Texas, and exploded.
Each of these last three test flights lasted six and a half minutes.
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