Starship SN11 crashed during a test flight on Tuesday, causing another setback for Elon Musk's company.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft launches on the Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard at Launch Complex 39A
The incident occurred when one of SpaceX's experimental rockets attempted to land after a natural ascent to around 12 kilometers in altitude.
The rocket launched from SpaceX's Starbase test site near Boca Chica Village in South Texas at 9 a.m. EDT. When the rocket was about to land, the company's live stream froze. Observers could not also see what happened because of the dense fog.
"Looks like we've had another exciting test of Starship Number 11," John Insprucker, launch commentator for SpaceX, said during the broadcast. "Starship 11 is not coming back, do not wait for the landing."
The company stated that it will provide more information as it becomes available. Still, it does not anticipate being able to recover video footage.
At Least the Crater is in the Right Place!
Musk said something seemed to be incorrect with one of SN11's Raptor engines, engine 2. He added the Starship prototype could not stick to the landing due to a "significant" issue. However, this isn't the cause for the rocket's failure.
"At least the crater is in the right place!" SpaceX CEO Elon Musk humorously tweeted about a half-hour after the test.
Looks like engine 2 had issues on ascent & didn’t reach operating chamber pressure during landing burn, but, in theory, it wasn’t needed.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 30, 2021
Something significant happened shortly after landing burn start. Should know what it was once we can examine the bits later today.
This is the experimental rocket's third crash landing or explosion. The weather in Boca Chica, however, made visibility challenging.
Insprucker said per CNBC that SpaceX seems to have lost all of the vehicle's data, and the team is currently away from the landing pad. Hence, they would be out looking for it.
ALSO READ: SpaceX to Reuse Dragon Spacecraft Fleet After Rocket Booster from NASA Crew-1 'Leaned'
FAA to Investigate The Crash
The flight, which was the company's second Starship rocket flight test this month, was initially scheduled for Monday afternoon but was delayed after a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector did not make it to Boca Chica in time for the launch. The corporation is in charge of commercial space launches, and all Starship launches need a delegate to be present.
"FAA inspector unable to reach Starbase in time for launch today," Musk wrote in an update on Twitter. "Postponed to no earlier than tomorrow."
The most recent launch warrant, released on March 12, said in a Space.com report that the company now needs an inspector to be present at all Starship launches. According to the license, any test flight will only take place "when an FAA Safety Inspector is present at SpaceX's Boca Chica launch and landing site."
The change is a new strategy for this test flight, and it derives from SpaceX's breach of its launch license after the launch of its SN8 concept in December. In December, the FAA warned that the SN8 flight profile met the maximum risk to the public in the event of an explosion. While the test flight ended in a major fireball, no property damage was reported outside of SpaceX's test site.
The FAA investigated what happened due to the explosion. Hence, the company's next prototype, SN9, postponed the launch. The FAA gave SpaceX the green light to deploy both SN9 and SN10 after a careful analysis of its organizational and decision-making processes concerning its Starship program.
Those two designs faced the same fate as SN8, but SN10 was the first to make it back to Earth alive. The rocket went off a few minutes after landing and exploded.
The FAA oversees typically launches remotely. But in light of SpaceX's latest breach, the department is taking a more hands-on approach and requesting an investigator to be on site. That person is currently based in Florida and must move back and forth between the two places.
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