SpaceX Starship SN10 prototype sticks landing, then explodes

A SpaceX Starship prototype blasted off from southern Texas on Wednesday, climbed to an altitude of six miles, tipped over on its side as planned and plunged back to Earth in a high-altitude swan dive, flipping back vertical and then successfully landing near the launch pad. A few minutes later it exploded in a spectacular fireball.

It was the company’s third high-altitude Starship test flight and its first successful landing. But the rocket came to rest with a slight tilt and a fire could be seen at its base near the engine compartment. Moments later, the unpiloted prototype — SN10 — blew up, showering the pad with flaming debris.

Despite the explosion, the successful landing marked a major milestone for SpaceX founder Elon Musk in his drive to develop a fully reusable heavy lift rocket, even as it showed the risks that come with an aggressive test program.

“SpaceX team is doing great work! One day, the true measure of success will be that Starship flights are commonplace,” Musk tweeted.

Speaking just before SpaceX wrapped up its launch webcast — and before the rocket exploded — company commentator John Insprucker said, “third time’s the charm, as the saying goes.”

“We’ve had a successful soft touchdown on the landing pad, capping a beautiful test flight of Starship 10,” he said. “As a reminder, a key point of today’s test flight was to gather the data on controlling the vehicle while reentering, and we were successful in doing so.”

He closed by congratulating the Texas launch team, saying “they’ve steadily increased the test launch cadence over the course of the program and have delivered some of the most exciting test flights many of us have seen in a long time.”

Given three dramatic launches and explosions in a row, few would argue.

Mirroring the two earlier unsuccessful test flights, the Starship prototype, known as serial number 10 or SN10 for short, blasted off from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas, launch site at 6:14 p.m. ET and climbed away through a mostly clear sky using three SpaceX-designed Raptor engines.

Liftoff came about two hours after the engines ignited for an initial launch attempt, but shut down on computer command an instant later. Musk said software engine thrust…