Elon Musk’s Starship Prototype Makes a Huge Impact

The United States entrepreneur Elon Musk’s tech firm SpaceX has launched their newly developed Starship prototype vehicle from Texas. The rocket without any human crew with the code-named SN8 lifted off from the facility of Boca Chica R&D and was only able to achieve a fright flight of 12.5 kilometers before the Starship prototype crashed during landing.

Development of SN8

Although the 50 meter tall vessels were only able to launch for 41,000 ft into the atmosphere, Elon Musk was delighted at the outcome of the intensive testing for the Starship prototype they have been able to accomplish. Before the launch of the flight, Mr. Musk dampened the expectations of the viewers and warning the fans that this test departure of the Starship prototype could possibly suffer from a mishap.

When the Starship prototype was completely developed, the tech billionaire had big hoped for the rocket, saying that it is the potential prospect of his firm SpaceX. The Starship prototype will be launched in the upcoming future with cargo and humans into orbit, as the space vehicle has the capability to travel towards the Moon and Mars.

The CEO of SpaceX also praised the team that developed and manufactured the Starship prototype, adding that we have been able to gather all the required data from the actual demonstration that ended with the crash of the prototype rocket. After the launch of the Starship prototype, Elon Musk tweeted, ‘Mars, here we come’.

The SpaceX Boca Chica facility located in Texas is one of the locations owned by SpaceX that has developed some of the more complex prototypes from the tech firm. The philosophy behind the accomplishments of intense complexity is to test each stage until it fails. Sometimes, prototypes tend to fail explosively.

Crash landing

The Starship prototype SN8 underwent the first-ever attempt towards high-altitude suborbital flight without any crew. The plan of the working team was to test few maneuvering techniques that would allow the rocket to mimic the re-entry in a belly-facing tactic back to the atmosphere of the Earth. But the Starship prototype ended up flipping back to a vertical position just as it was about to touchdown.

Most of the pre-planned objectives of the Starship prototype were achieved, including a clean and clear launch of flight from the pad, a steady speed while climbing high altitude, and followed by a descend in the horizontal position. When the space rocket unexpectedly flipped into the vertical position that was when things started to go out of plan. The space vehicle collided with the landing pad with increased acceleration and exploded completely on impact with the ground.

Elon Musk explained the cause of the crash landing on Twitter, saying that the pressure of the fuel header tank was at a low point during the landing burn, resulting in increased velocity at the time of touch and rapid unscheduled disassembly on impact.

Other than the massive starship prototype, the tech billionaire has multiple other finished prototypes of different technological products at the Boca Chica facility that are ready to take the place of the SN8 prototype.

The Starship prototype was equipped with here of the latest engines with methane-burning raptors developed by SpaceX, aerodynamically developed control surfaces, and a nose cone for stability and dynamics.

Eventually, SpaceX plans to launch a booster which is named Super Heavy that is expected to feature 28 Raptors, which would produce a thrust of 70 meganewtons. These 16 million pounds of thrust will be more than the Apollo Saturn 5 space rocket, which was used for a mission by the human crew to the Moon.

Both of the newly manufactured systems by SpaceX, the Super Heavy Booster and Starship prototype, would stand about 118 meters tall on the launch pad. All types of equipment are being developed with reusable material.

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