Dramatic footage shows SpaceX spacecraft exploding after crashing into ocean

Ocean explosion

Even until its very final moments, SpaceX’s fifth orbital test flight of its heavy-lift Starship spacecraft was a huge success.

First, the company managed to safely catch Starship’s Super Heavy booster using its “Mechazilla” tower, which features two “wand” arms – a puzzling feat of engineering.

Even the 165-foot upper stage managed to pull off a classic flight, taking off early Sunday morning from the company’s test flight facility in Boca Chica, Texas, and circling the Earth for nearly an hour .

Pristine images provided by Starlink showed the spacecraft gliding gently through space, with the Earth rotating below.

Just before landing, the spacecraft performed a “belly flop” maneuver to slow its descent even further. Then it fired its thrusters to right itself and slow its descent to the ocean surface.

But seconds later, a presumably remote-controlled camera bobbed in the water. recorded the spaceship going up in a huge fireball, a dramatic end to an otherwise manual test launch.

“Splashdown confirmed!” » The official SpaceX account tweeted. “Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on this exciting fifth Starship flight test!”

Despite the explosion, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk called it a huge victory.

“The ship has landed precisely on target!” he tweeted. “The second of two goals achieved,” he added, likely referring to the company that recovered the Super Heavy booster.

https://twitter.com/tariqjmalik/status/1845459551451074901

Next stop: March

Previous test flights didn’t go as well. The last flight, in June, saw the massive spacecraft largely survive its descent, but crash helplessly into the ocean. At the time, the Starship’s aerodynamic “flaps” were obliterated by the extreme forces involved.

The company’s test flights in 2023 largely ended in massive explosions, forcing the company to reset for several months and deal with the aftermath.

During its final flight, Starship could be seen slowly engulfed in plasma as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere at more than 26,000 mph. The hexagonal tiles of the spacecraft’s heat shield protected it from the extreme temperatures involved. Even the flaps seemed much better this time compared to the company’s test flight in June.

The next flight, dubbed Flight 6, has already received the green light from the Federal Aviation Administration, paving the way for another exciting launch.

Naturally, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took the opportunity today to reiterate his ambitions to develop a city on Mars with the help of the spacecraft.

“If civilization is reasonably stable over the next 30 years, a self-sustaining city of over a million people will be built on Mars,” he tweeted.

Learn more about Starship: SpaceX just caught its Starship Booster with giant “chopstick” arms