SpaceX finally completed a key milestone in its Starship test program after three tries by successfully landing Starship SN10 after a high-altitude flight.
Spaceflight Insider
Nicholas D Alessandro
March 2nd, 2021
Starship SN10 from the beach dunes under a foggy sunset. Credit: Nicholas D’Alessandro / Spaceflight Insider
SpaceX’s Starship SN10 finally appears ready to fly after a tumultuous few weeks in Texas following the SN9 flight.
SN9 and SN10 stood side-by-side in a first of its kind occurrence at the Boca Chica test facility continuing the breakneck pace of the flight campaigns until mother nature made other plans. Soon after the last of the SN9 debris was cleared from the area following the second Starship hard landing, Texas was slammed with an historic and unprecedented invasion of arctic air that gripped the state causing widespread power outages and halting test progress at SpaceX.
Spaceflight Insider
Cullen Desforges
February 27th, 2021
Starship SN9 explodes as it impacts the landing zone in off nominal conditions. This often brings up the question of what defines a failure in spaceflight testing. Image: Nicholas D’Alessandro, Spaceflight Insider
In recent months, several companies have made great strides in the realm of testing advanced spacecraft, despite public perception some would label a failure. It’s this perception that brings up the question: “In Spaceflight testing, what defines a failure?”
In February, SpaceX conducted the second high-altitude test flight of its Starship spacecraft from its building and launch site in Boca Chica, Texas. The flight profile of the Serial Number 9 test article, commonly referred to as SN9, called for a launch and climb to about 10 kilometers.