SpaceX Starship SN11 launch - As it happened: Elon Musk says Mars-bound rocket made ‘crater’
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.SpaceX has completed the fourth major flight test of a Starship rocket, which appears to have ended in a huge explosion once again.
Poor weather conditions at the launch site means it is still unclear what happened, but SpaceX boss Elon Musk said “something significant happened shortly after landing burn start” that resulted in a crater.
The attempt to launch and land a Starship rocket on Tuesday from SpaceX’s Boca Chica facility in Texas came less than four weeks after the last test ended in a fiery explosion.
Previous launch attempts on Friday and Monday were scrubbed - the first due to technical issues, the second as a result of an absent FAA inspector.
All three previous Starship flight test have ended in a “rapid unscheduled disassembly”, as SpaceX puts it, and a successful launch and landing would have been a major step towards realising Musk’s Mars ambitions.
SpaceX posted a live stream of the event a few minutes before it took place.
Replays from NasaSpaceFlight’s footage has shed a bit of light on what happened.
There was a huge flash of light that illuminated the fog, followed by various bits of debris falling to the ground.
Here’s a freeze frame of the largest piece.
Elon Musk has confirmed the explosion.
“A high production rate solves many ills,” the SpaceX boss tweeted. “At least the crater is in the right place!”
Elon Musk has just hinted that SpaceX may attempt another Starship launch in a few days.
Local road closures are already in place with Cameron County for Friday, so we could see something then.
Hopefully SpaceX has some footage that they can share with us at some point. Following the launches of SN8, SN9 and SN10, video from SpaceX’s landing pad cameras revealed close-up shots of the Starship coming into land.
That will hopefully give us a better idea of what happened. But until we hear from SpaceX, there’s not much more we can bring you. Thanks for joining us, and maybe see you in a few days?
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments