SpaceX’s Prototype Mars Rocket crashes

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 SpaceX’s Prototype Mars Rocket crashes

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• Exploded, again: A test flight of SpaceX’s Starship, Elon Musk’s next-generation spacecraft which is intended to one day land on Mars, was launched again in Feb 2021 for a brief flight, but came to an explosive end. That brief flight, to an altitude of about 6 miles and then back to a landing pad, appeared to again demonstrate how the mammoth rocket would tip over on its side as it descended in a controlled belly flop back toward a landing.
• What went wrong: But when the prototype fired its engines to right itself back to a vertical orientation, it appeared that one engine did not properly ignite, and Starship hit the ground at an angle, disintegrating in a fireball, leaving a cloud of smoke rising over the test site, which is in Boca Chica, Texas. The end was similar to the last test flight in December which also ended in an explosion at landing, although the particular cause of the rocket failing to slow down enough may have been different.
• FAA: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which regulates rocket launches, announced that it will oversee an investigation of why the prototype crashed. 
• Controversy: For this launch, SpaceX at least had the permission of the F.A.A. Recently, SpaceX and government regulators seemed to be in a strange standoff. SpaceX had filled the propellant tanks of this prototype of Starship — its ninth one — and looked ready to launch. But then the rocket stayed on the ground when no approval from the F.A.A. arrived. Musk expressed frustration on Twitter, describing the part of the F.A.A. that oversees SpaceX as “fundamentally broken.”
• Developments: Later, the F.A.A. gave permission for launch, but then revealed that the December launch had occurred without the agency’s approval. SpaceX had requested a waiver to conduct that flight even though it had not shown that a pressure wave that could be generated by an explosion during the test would not pose a danger to the public. The F.A.A. denied the request. SpaceX defied the ruling and launched anyway. Even if Starship had landed perfectly, launching it without approval was a violation of the company’s license.
• Public threat: SpaceX was also told to halt testing that could endanger the public until the company made changes that satisfied the agency. The F.A.A. said the resulting changes improved safety and were incorporated into Tuesday’s launch. 
• Plan: In 2019, when he provided an update on the development of Starship, he said a high-altitude test would occur within months and that orbital flights could occur early in 2020. Instead, several catastrophic failures happened because of faulty welding. When the propellant tanks stopped rupturing, one of the prototypes made a short successful flight in September. That earlier Starship model, which resembled a spray paint can with the label removed, lifted itself nearly 500 feet using a single rocket engine before setting down at the Texas test site.
• Future: The next Starship prototype — the tenth — has already been built and rolled out to the launchpad. It could fly later in Feb 2021. 
• Fast forward: As SpaceX continues its development of Starship, it has already launched three other rockets in 2021 till Feb. One mission, Transporter-1, launched on Sunday and carried 133 commercial and government spacecraft (as well as 10 of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites). The launch represented SpaceX’s entry into the business known as rideshare, in which numerous customers pay for a fraction of the cost of a trip to orbit.

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