SpaceX rocket explodes after successfully landing after high-altitude flight

[mystery-ak]

SpaceX rocket explodes after successfully landing after high-altitude flight
By Zack Budryk - 03/03/21 08:23 PM EST

SpaceX’s Starship prototype landed for the first time after a high-altitude test flight Wednesday but exploded shortly thereafter.

The prototype, Starship rocket Serial Number 10, was not carrying any passengers or crew at the time of the explosion, according to CNBC. Two previous test prototypes have exploded on impact while attempting to land, although after first completing objectives like aerodynamics tests and engine shutdowns.

The SN10 flight successfully fired all of its three engines and shut them down in sequence and was able to slow its engines down enough to land, while the earlier test flights exploded after they were unable to slow down in time. The cause of the explosion this time around remains unknown.


“The Texas team has several more suborbital test vehicles in build, with number 11 ready to roll out to the pad in the very near future,” SpaceX principal integration engineer John Insprucker said, according to CNBC.

more
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/541547-spacex-rocket-explodes-after-first-successful-high-altitude-flight

[Elderberry]

Apparently it was not a successful landing. It was a Hard Landing.


Videos were posted here: http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php/topic,387074.msg2390386.html#msg2390386


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMxb4EXV5hM


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzhP3Q5fku8

[Doug Loss]

Hey, they're getting better.  It's taking longer for them to explode after landing, these days...

Actually, what it looked to me like happened is that the landing legs failed to deploy properly and the rocket landed on the engine skirt.  I'd guess that the engines touched the landing pad and that caused the methane fuel lines to rupture.  In the video you notice an automatic water hose playing on the base of the rocket.  The rocket exploded only after the water ran out.  I suspect that the engine skirt was containing the methane gas and increasing the concentration to the point that the residual heat from the engines (kept down while the water was playing on the base of the rocket) ignited it.  But we'll see when SpaceX reports on what happened.