SpaceX’s prototype spacecraft crashed just five minutes after takeoff earlier today. The Starship SN11 managed to reach an altitude of 32,000ft, before coasting back down to the Earth’s surface. The sound of the impact, as well as the spacecraft’s debris, have been recorded in a stunning video.
The Starship rocket killed its first engine two minutes after takeoff, and coasted on its remaining two Raptors.
Ninety seconds later, SN11 killed its third engine, and continued with just one Raptor remaining.
As it reached its highest point, the spacecraft tipped onto its side by a full 90 degrees, and dropped straight back down to Earth.
SN11 didn’t fire its engines again until just before it reached the ground.
If everything had gone to plan, the spacecraft would’ve fired its engines again earlier, allowing the rocket to tip upright and gently touch down on the launch pad.
The rocket could then be used again to transport humans to and from Mars.
But, on this occasion, the SN11 crashed while attempting the landing, and SpaceX confirmed the spacecraft didn’t survive the flight.
The crash itself wasn’t caught on camera, but the aftermath was recorded in a stunning video.
A thick fog is covering the launch area, due to the launch moments earlier.
But large pieces of debris are seen flying across the screen in the early stages of the video.
It’s accompanied by a series of loud booms as the rocket crashes back down to Earth.
The SpaceX official live stream of the launch froze while the rocket was still in mid-air, so fans had no idea that the Starship had fallen back down to Earth.
“As you can see from the frozen camera view, we lost the clock at T-5:49,” said John Insprucker, the principal integration engineer at SpaceX and live stream commentator.
“Looks like we’ve had another exciting test of Starship Number 11.
“A reminder again, this is a test series to gather data on entry of the Starship vehicle at subsonic speeds as it comes back to the landing zone.
“It does appear though as another exciting test, as we say. We don’t have any good camera views to share with you right now so with that we’re going to bring the webcast to a close.”