After a very successful launch, Elon Musk gets slapped with the horrifying news of a very rough landing from the Starship SN8 rocket. Luckily this is seemingly a prototype and even though it exploded, Elon Musk and many others state it was still a success.

When they began the launching there had been multiple pulses in the tests and there is no clear reasoning as to why they had done this. There was no specific outlook of how the test was going to go but right after the lift-off Starship SN8 engine shut off. At first, the flight had done its best, going eight miles above the company’s testing facilities before crashing down in plumes of smoke and flames. The prototype had no one on board and as they did manage to maneuver the spaceship back to The Landing Target. As stated in cnn.com “SpaceX and Musk are known to embrace mishaps during the early stages of new spacefaring technology development” (ctvnews).

Interestingly enough this hasn’t been the only Starship prototype that was destroyed during a pressure test. This had been specifically designed to check whether a vehicle can withstand the enormous pressure it undergoes during fueling and in-flight. 

The model of Starship, a 160 ft tall spaceship proposed by Elon Musk hopes it will be used for hauling massive satellites into Earth’s orbit and overall bring us closer to taking us closer to get men on Mars. It offers an integrated payload section and is capable of carrying passengers and cargo to Earth’s orbit, planetary destinations, and between destinations on Earth. But Starship could have plenty of other practical purposes closer to home. The spacecraft could be capable of hauling massive satellites or research telescopes into Earth’s orbit, resupplying the International Space Station.

Though how could this incident ultimately affect the prospect of all the time they had input into this project only to have it blow up. Carolina Mueller (9) “I think that Elon Musk and the companyś reputation would be affected negatively by this event. A lot of money and resources were used to create the rocket, and since it exploded people could have less trust in him and his ideas.” Carolina proves a good point because now the team will have to re-evaluate their calculations and decisions involving the creation of a more reliable rocket that can actually survive a trip.

All in all, though this occurrence could have been prevented, and it did cause some deprivation towards their supply, it will hopefully bring thought to better assessments regarding the new rocket. The collaboration of ideas will definitely come through eventually and lead us to an even more successful mission for now we can just wait and appreciate all the time and effort that has been going into this.