SpaceX Starship SN11 Rocket Fails to Land Safely After Test Launch: Elon Musk

Starships SN8 and SN9 previously exploded upon landing during their test runs. SN10 achieved an upright landing earlier this month, but then went up in flames about eight minutes after touchdown



SpaceX chief Elon Musk confirmed on Twitter on Tuesday that the latest prototype of the company's Starship rocket series had crashed, after the video feed of its test flight cut out.

The Starship was one in a series of prototypes for the heavy-lift rocket being developed by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's private space company to carry humans and 100 tons of cargo on future missions to the Moon and Mars.

The complete Starship rocket, which will stand 394 feet (120 metres) tall with its super-heavy first-stage booster included, is SpaceX's next-generation fully reusable launch vehicle - the center of Musk's ambitions to make human space travel more affordable and routine.

"At least the crater is in the right place!" Musk joked, in acknowledging the fourth failed test of the prototype.

"Something significant happened shortly after the landing burn started. Should know what it was once we can examine the bits later today," he added.

The rocket, SN11, launched from the company's south Texas facility around 1300 GMT and began its ascent to 10 kilometers (six miles), experiencing some video glitches.

It was descending to the surface when the feed was lost once again.

"We lost the clock at T plus five minutes, 49 seconds," said announcer John Insprucker, meaning the amount of time that had passed after lift-off.

"Looks like we've had another exciting test of Starship Number 11," he added.

A first orbital Starship flight is planned for the year's end. Musk, who also heads the electric carmaker Tesla, has said he intends to fly Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa around the moon in the Starship in 2023.

Starships SN8 and SN9 previously exploded upon landing during their test runs. SN10 achieved an upright landing earlier this month, but then went up in flames about eight minutes after touchdown.

SN11 is the 11th prototype of Starship, which SpaceX hopes will one day be able to fly crewed missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

It was the fourth to conduct a test flight attempting to return to the ground for a soft vertical landing.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Indian Defence Ministry issues formal tender for mega 40,000 crore submarine program

Image
  It will be the first project to be implemented under the strategic partnership (SP) model that allows domestic firms to collaborate with foreign players to produce high-end military platforms in India. The  Defence Ministry on Tuesday issued the request for proposal (RFP) to domestically build six conventional submarines for the Navy at a cost of over Rs 40,000 crore, over a month after the mega acquisition project was cleared. The project is named Project 75 (India) It will be the first project to be implemented under the strategic partnership (SP) model that allows domestic firms to collaborate with foreign players to produce high-end military platforms in India.The RFP was issued to the Mazagaon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) and Larsen & Toubro (L&T), the two Indian companies shortlisted following a long-drawn process, according to the defence ministry. The RFP was issued to shortlisted Strategic Partners (SPs) or Indian Applicant Companies for the project viz, M/s M
Read more

Apartheid

Image
APARTHEID OF SOUTH AFRICA By Arfat Hussain MGM (BA-IJ) student Policy that governed relations between South Africa’s white minority and non-white majority sanctioned racial segregation, political and economic discrimination against non-whites. The implementation of  apartheid , often called “separate development”. Since the 1960s, it was made possible through the Population Registration Act  of 1950 which classified all South Africans as either Bantu (all black Africans), Coloured (those of mixed race), white. A fourth category Asian (Indian and Pakistani) was later added. Racial segregation , sanctioned by the law was widely practiced in South Africa before 1948, but the National Party, which gained office that year, extended the policy and gave it the name  apartheid . The Group Areas Act  of 1950 established residential and business sections in urban areas for each race and members of other races were barred from living, operating businesses, or owning land in t
Read more

Two Maharashtra District to go under complete lockdown as the Covid-19 cases rises

Image
Central team of experts that visited Covid-affected Kolhapur and Sangli districts in Maharashtra have suggested a total lockdown in the two districts. The team expressed concern as to why the transmission was not stopping in the two districts despite a series of measures in place. “There are 10 districts which have a higher positivity rate as compared to the rest of the state and the Central team that visited some of them has emphasised on measures like testing, contact tracing, and vaccination…We are following all protocols,” Rajesh Tope, state health minister, reportedly said. According to Dr Shashank Joshi, expert with the state Covid task force, the trend of coronavirus infection is picking up in districts such as Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara, and Pune rural and even Ahmednagar and Nandurbar (which are showing upward trend due to a low denominator). “The entire Western belt of Maharashtra is a cause of concern…We have an active virus in circulation and something is not going right,” Dr
Read more