SpaceX rocket explosion: watch Starship SN8 launch and meet a fiery end SpaceX Starship SN8
The SpaceX Starship SN8 high-altitude flight test was a success during the first few minutes of the liftoff live stream, but it couldn’t quite stick the landing, exploding in spectacular fashion upon impact with the landing site.
You can watch the fiery SpaceX Starship explosion video below. The rocket begins its ultimate descent five minutes after liftoff (if you want to fast-forward). In between and also right at the end, you can observe a green flame coming from the engines.
The suborbital flight of this prototype rocket was designed to test a number of objectives, including how the three Raptor engines performed, aerodynamic entry capabilities of the vehicle (including the body flaps) and how it managed propellant transition, according to SpaceX. It wasn’t bound for space or carrying a valuable payload.
[embedded content]
Even before the twice-delayed liftoff on Wednesday, December 9, SpaceX noted that Starship SN8 would “attempt to perform a landing flip maneuver, which would be a first for a vehicle of this size.” SpaceX founder Elon Musk gave the entire test flight a 1 in 3 chance of fully succeeding.
SpaceX also mentioned in the description of the live stream liftoff video that “a test such as this, success is not measured by completion of specific objectives but rather how much we can learn as a whole.” This was written before the explosion.
It went on to say that today’s Starship test “will inform and improve the probability of success in the future as SpaceX rapidly advances development of Starship.” Musk, in a post-launch and explosion tweet went on to back up this tone, saying the data meant to be collected was indeed a success.
Fuel header tank pressure was low during landing burn, causing touchdown velocity to be high & RUD, but we got all the data we needed! Congrats SpaceX team hell yeah!!December 9, 2020
Cue SpaceX Starship SN9.
The SpaceX Starship SN8 high-altitude flight test was a success during the first few minutes of the liftoff live stream, but it couldn’t quite stick the landing, exploding in spectacular fashion upon impact with the landing site. You can watch the fiery SpaceX Starship explosion video below. The rocket begins…
Recent Posts
- 30TB hard drives will finally become mainstream next year — Japanese rival to Seagate and Western Digital reveals plans to launch two 30TB+ HDDs in 2025 using two different technologies
- Quordle today – hints and answers for Sunday, May 19 (game #846)
- Blue Origin’s first crewed launch since 2022: Where to watch
- This modder proves everything’s better with a GBA SP screen attached
- Mobile industry is quietly preparing for the biggest change to your smartphone in a decade — iSIM will hasten the end of SIM cards and allow networks to preload plans on devices
Archives
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- December 2011