Wednesday was a day of extreme highs and extreme lows for Elon Musk’s SpaceX team. The company successfully launched its SN10 rocket over south Texas (watch above). The unmanned prototype climbed six miles over the coastal landscape before slowly descending to earth for a gentle touchdown.
It was the first time SpaceX successfully landed one its Starship rockets. Two previous attempts failed.
However, the day would end with another explosion. As Reuters explains:
Listing slightly to one side as an automated fire-suppression system trained a stream of water on flames still burning at the base of the rocket, the spacecraft blew itself to pieces about eight minutes after touchdown.
Amazing job by @SpaceX on sticking the landing! #SN10
That said, there was a post landing possible methane leak that caused an explosion… so don’t be confused if you see that video somewhere. It happened much later. https://t.co/l4XgrSEbWs
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) March 4, 2021
The New York Times reports that a leak in a propellant tank may have caused the explosion.
Notwithstanding the fireball, Musk received congratulations on Twitter; getting a 394-foot spaceship to land itself is no easy task. Musk replied to one well-wisher, “RIP SN10, honorable discharge.”
RIP SN10, honorable discharge
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 4, 2021
According to CNN, “SpaceX intends to use Starship for a variety of purposes, including shuttling paying customers between cities at breakneck speeds, potentially aiding NASA’s Moon landing efforts, and, eventually, launching cargo and human missions to Mars.”
In a video released on Tuesday night, Musk said Starship would be ready to launch people to orbit by 2023. Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese entrepreneur and SpaceX investor, plans to take a week long trip to the moon (and back) when the Starship project is deemed safe. Maezawa says he wants to bring eight other passengers with him. He has received interests from hundreds of thousands of people.