It should never be forgotten that despite seeing some huge technological leaps in literally just the last few years, space travel is still a very dangerous business. As such, it’s important to remember that as we look to press ahead with the various systems and starships we may one day choose to utilize, there is still a lot of ‘bugs’ that need to be worked out before we, you know, actually start putting people inside rockets!
Well, following a number of delays, SpaceX finally launched the first test flight of its SN8 Starship yesterday evening and… Well, let’s just say that it went pretty well, right up until the point it came back into contact with planet earth.
Firstly, we should note that no one was aboard this craft. So the key and most important message to kick this off with is that no one was hurt. As part of a test flight looking to send the SN8 Starship into a sub-orbital flight (around 5 miles into the air), however, the launch did seem to be progressing remarkably well. – When it came to the landing, however, something clearly went very, very, wrong!
Although there will clearly be a lot of investigations made into what specifically went wrong, it doesn’t exactly take a rocket scientist to see that in the video below (courtesy of CNET) the SN8 Starship touches down way too hard and, as such, the fuel tank almost certainly ruptured causing a huge explosion.
Despite ending in an explosion, the flight was still (as mad as it might sound) a success in many aspects. Yes, it ultimately ended in a catastrophic failure, but there were more than a few good aspects to allow SpaceX engineers to not only pour over the bad data, but also the exceptionally positive! – I mean, aside from the landing, the SN8 Starship did, pretty much, everything else perfectly!
From a casual point of view though, we get to see a rocket launch, perform some amazing tricks, and then it’s all capped off with a huge explosion. It’s a video pretty much tailored to the average viewer!
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
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