RIP Starship: Elon Musk’s Ambitious Spacecraft Prototype Ruptures During Testing-Video
According to SpaceX head Elon Musk, the company will not repair the damaged Starship Mk1 prototype as it was only used for testing certain technologies. SpaceX now intends to work on the creation of more advanced modifications of the rocket.
The Starship Mk1 spacecraft prototype suffered a failure during a cryogenic pressure test at the Boca Chica test site in southern Texas on Wednesday, according to the space.com portal.
The portal reported that the upper section of the rocket bounced off and fell near the testing ground.
Space X representatives, however, struck a positive note, saying that the company will proceed with the development of the Mk3 prototype.
“The purpose of today’s test was to pressurise systems to the max, so the outcome was not completely unexpected. There were no injuries, nor is this a serious setback”, they wrote. “As Elon tweeted, Mk1 served as a valuable manufacturing pathfinder but flight design is quite different. The decision had already been made to not fly this test article and the team is focused on the Mk3 builds, which are designed for orbit”.
Starship is SpaceX’s next-generation spacecraft and is intended to carry humans and cargo into the Earth’s orbit, the Moon, and eventually Mars.
In September, Elon Musk said that the vehicle would take its first flight in one to two months.
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