SpaceX Starship Explodes in Failed Landing Attempt

SpaceX’s newest Starship prototype exploded on Tuesday, after a failed landing attempt during a test flight. CNBC reports that the rocket flew just fine, but suffered fiery complications during its return to the ground. “We had, again, another great flight up … we’ve just got to work on that landing a little bit,” SpaceX principal integration engineer John Insprucker said of the incident. The prototype explosion comes after the same thing happened with another test flight in December. It is also important that note that the crafts are unmanned, so no one was injured or killed in the explosion.

“So all told, another great [flight] — and a reminder, this is a test flight, the second time we’ve launched starship in this configuration,” Insprucker added. “We’ve got a lot of good data, and [achieved] the primary objective to demonstrate control of the vehicle and the subsonic reentry.” The Starship prototypes are tests of the materials that are to be used in SpaceX’s planned cargo ship missions that would take as many as 100 people at a time on trips to the moon and to Mars. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had the Starship program shifted to the company’s top priority after it was able to send a human-crewed flight into and back from space successfully.

SpaceX was founded by Musk in 2002 with a mission to “revolutionize space technology.” In 2012, he spoke with 60 Minutes’ Scott Pelley and shared some insight on where the business had come from, as well as where it was going. “The odds of me coming into the rocket business, not knowing anything about rockets, not having ever built anything, I mean, I would have to be insane if I thought the odds were in my favor,” Musk said, per CBS News.

Musk later added that he finds it “important that humanity become a multi-planet species.” He also stated that he felt “most people would agree that a future where we are a space-faring civilization is inspiring and exciting compared with one where we are forever confined to Earth until some eventual extinction event.” Musk explained that this is “really why I started SpaceX.” The inventive technologist eventually stated that he had a lot of faith in SpaceX calling it a “little scrappy company,” and then adding that “every now and again, the little scrappy company wins.” He concluded by saying, “I think this’ll be one of those times.”