The starship seemed to hit the altitude mark or at least come very close.
The full-scale, test rocket was 160ft (50m) tall and 30ft (9m) in diameter. Its flight took place over the Gulf of Mexico. When it reached the target altitude, it proceeded as planned to free-fall back to its landing site.
The engines then reignited to brake and the rocket was once-again upright. But the touchdown failed when the rocket ship exploded in flames.
The Artemis program gets ready for Mars
In advance of the SpaceX launch, NASA introduced 18 astronauts training for the Mars mission. The U.S. astronauts are scheduled to be on-board Artemis moon-landing program.
Starship SN8 is the rocketship that Elon Musk claims could carry people to Mars in “4 to 6 years.” So despite the explosive landing, SpaceX is happy.
After all, the rocket was able to hit the right altitude and its guidance system sent the rocket to the correct landing location. The fire started because of low pressure in the fuel tank.
Musk claimed it was a successful mission, despite the crash landing. He tweeted, “But we got all the data we needed!”
