The Times, London:
SpaceX launched its prototype Mars rocketship on a pioneering high-altitude test flight last night, defying the odds to send its Starship SN8 vehicle soaring over the Gulf of Mexico before a fiery crash landing.
In an audacious feat that even Elon Musk, the SpaceX founder and chief executive, had given low odds of success, the 50m vehicle pulled off a spectacular sequence of steps to test its three Raptor engines and aerodynamic capabilities.
“We got all the data we needed. Congrats to the SpaceX team. Hell yeah!... Mars here we come!” Mr Musk tweeted.......
The prototype’s explosive landing was considered a mere blip in an otherwise victorious trial that allowed engineers to accomplish the primary goals of testing its Raptor engines and aerodynamic capabilities.
Its successful ascent, about-turn at high altitude, descent and final preparation for landing checked off critical boxes on SpaceX’s “to do” list, before a loss of pressure in the propellant tanks that control the landing speed caused it to hit the ground too fast.
Musk referred to the impact as an ‘RUD’, an acronym for ‘rapid unscheduled disassembly’ - engineers’ tongue-in-cheek euphemism for a crash.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin – a rocket company also developing lunar capabilities – and founder and chief executive officer of Amazon, stated last night: “Anybody who knows how hard this stuff is is impressed by today’s Starship test. Big congrats to the whole SpaceX team.”