While the Starship SN8 test flight is still fresh in memory, its successor, the SN9, flew away on Tuesday before also failing landing. But let it be said:what SpaceX is trying to do is unprecedented and incredibly difficult.
SpaceX's Starship prototype SN9 successfully launched on Tuesday, February 2 over southern Texas. After reaching an altitude of ten kilometers, the craft then began its "belly forward" descent so that it could purge its speed. He then relied on his reaction control thrusters to return to an upright position to prepare for the landing, again missed.
Seven weeks have passed since the flight of its predecessor, the SN8. Even so, the SN9 suffered a similar fate. It appeared that one of the two Raptor engines intended to enable the final controlled descent failed to re-ignite (see a great view in slow motion). As a result, the vehicle was unable to reorient itself to an upright position. But can we really call that a failure? Absolutely not.
It is indeed necessary to take a step back to fully understand what SpaceX is trying to do with its Starship:unheard of.
With its Falcon 9 program, SpaceX demonstrated the ability to launch and land a rocket, yes, but the Starship is something else. It is an orbital ship, not a launcher. The Starship will not "just" need to fire its engines for eight minutes and then fall back into the ocean. It will need to be able to restart its engines multiple times, survive for weeks or even months in space, and also re-enter Earth's atmosphere with minimal effects to ensure rapid reuse.
As Elon Musk said a few months ago to his teams during a meeting attended by journalist Eric Berger, from Ars Technica :"It is stupidly difficult to develop a fully reusable orbital system. It would be one of the greatest breakthroughs in human history ” .
So it's critical to understand that what Musk is asking his engineers to do is pretty darn tough, but they have no choice but to take on the challenge.
SpaceX gives itself the means to succeed with its factory from Boca Chica, South Texas. The company can now build and launch these stainless steel vessels at breakneck speed, allowing Musk to see failure more as an option. That's not to say SpaceX crews are "thrilled" over these last two crashes, of course. On the other hand, this factory and this iterative design program – each new vehicle improves on its previous model – make it easier and faster to move on to subsequent tests.
Also this last test of the SN9, once again spectacular, will allow the engineers to collect as much data as possible to start the next test campaign, with the SN10 already positioned on its pad .
So yes, SpaceX still has a long way to go before the Starship is fully operational, but let's not forget that the company and its engineers are marking a aerospace history once again.
