A prototype of SpaceX's Starship rocket exploded on Tuesday during a landing attempt minutes after a high-altitude experimental launch from Boca Chica, Texas.
It was the second such explosion after the last prototype of Starship met a similar fate in December.
"We had again another great flight," said a SpaceX announcer on live footage that was broadcast online.
"We've just got to work on that landing a little bit," he added.
Live feed of Starship SN9 flight test → https://t.co/Hs5C53qBxb https://t.co/ioM0D5J91I
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 2, 2021Advertisement
The Starship SN9 that blew up on its final descent, like the SN8 before it, was a test model of 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 stainless steel rocket dubbed SN9 was cleared for lift-off from Boca Chica, Texas by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which had earlier delayed granting authorization after determining that SpaceX's last launch violated the terms of its license.
The rocket launched smoothly around 3:30 pm local time (2030 GMT) and progressively shut down its engines as it reached a height of 10 kilometers (six miles), then performed a series of test maneuvers in a horizontal "belly flop" position.
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It was when the rocket attempted to return to a vertical position for landing that the problems began, with the footage showing it came in much too fast and at a bad angle
It landed with a deafening crash, and exploded into bright orange flames and a dust cloud, but the fire did not spread.
The company's founder Elon Musk was uncharacteristically quiet on social media, having announced the night before he was "Off Twitter for a while."
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