We're Not Going To Mars Soon

The dream of making humanity multi-planetary faces another challenge with SpaceX’s forth and most recent high altitude flight test failing miserably. Unlike every other large rocket manufacturer, SpaceX aims to land its massive rockets named Starships back on Earth for possible reuse in the future. Up until March 2021 there have been 4 high altitude landing missions starting with Starship SN 8. In every single one of these tests SpaceX successfully launched the spaceship to the desired altitude which is 10 km. On the other hand, landing these humongous spacecraft that weigh around 5.000 tons have never been successful

Mission: Starship SN11

Starship SN11 is the most recent Starship prototype that SpaceX have manufactured. Starship SN11 is 120 meters tall (Starship + Super Heavy booster) and uses sub-cooled liquid methane (CH4) as fuel and liquid oxygen (LOX) as an oxidizer for the fuel. Overall the fuel is called “methalox”. The fuel powers SpaceX’s trademark engines, the “Raptor Engine”. This massive spacecraft has three of these Raptor engines in its Super Heavy booster which are gradually shut down one by one to stop the ship from ascending and start a smooth landing process. Landing and reusability is crucial for next-generation space flight.

What Elon Musk and SpaceX are trying to do with Starship SN11 is to prove that high altitude flight and landing is achievable. This has always been their motive ever since Starship SN8. Before SN8, SpaceX proved to the world something that was considered impossible for decades. SN5 and SN6 prototypes are Elon Musk’s evidence that reusability isn’t just a silly dream. These two prototypes were launched 150 meters up in the sky and were able to land back on the SpaceX landing pad. However, Elon Musk might have set up his own humiliation. Back in June 2016 Musk announced that the first uncrewed Mars flight will happen as early as 2022 (next year) and the first crewed Mars flight will happen in 2025, time is running out for SpaceX.

Is Mission Impossible for SpaceX and Musk

This Tuesday on March 30, Starship SN11 lifted off from Starbase launch zone located in Boca Chica, South Texas. Musk’s company wished that the prototype reached 10 kilometers and landed smoothly back on Earth. Sadly, this wasn't the case. Right after the second Raptor engine was shut down around T + 03:50 flight time, the flight room lost visual as the cameras on the engine blacked out. The cameras came back to life at T + 04:33. During this period with no camera view, all of the Raptor engines were shut down and the ship started to descend. The plan was to land SN11 with power of only one engine. According to the plan, flight operators ignited one single Raptor engine just 1 km above Earth's surface. Unfortunately, after just a few seconds of igniting the engine Starship SN11 met its end. The massive ship exploded. It has been reported that shrapnel pieces were blown off as far as 5 km. According to most current reports there is no civil or property damage caused by the explosion. Nonetheless, US officials stated that a full on investigation will be made.

A piece of shrapnel that a civilian found that came from Starship SN11

This last attempt raises the question amongst the media and general public including SpaceX enthusiasts, will Elon Musk ever set humanity free from the boundaries of our blue planet?

Official Launch Video