SpaceX has been trying very hard to nail the landing of its Starship. But till now they have been unsuccessful. The SN8 launch ended in a crash, and there were a lot of expectations form the SN9. But even after having a great launch, the landing of SN9 was unsuccessful too. And now our eyes are all set on the SN10. And Elon Musk says that SpaceX’s SN10 starship has a “60% chance of landing”. That is quite a big claim by the CEO of the company and the world’s richest man. If correct, it also depicts how much they have actually worked on the latest Starship prototype.
Reasons for the SN8 and SN9 failure
After passing the pre-flight test, both the SN8 and the SN9 had a great initial launch. But the problem happened while landing. The SN8 and the SN9 crashed very badly and burst into flames. Elon Musk said that the reason for the crash of the SN8 was the low pressure in the fuel talk of the rocket. So, it’s obvious that we speculated that the problem would be taken care of in the SN9, but sadly that didn’t happen.
In fact, the SN9 looked to have crashed even badly then the SN8. I personally watched the entire launch event, and it seemed that the rocket was out of control while landing. The thrusters didn’t fire up completely, and the speed of the Starship was too fast to have a proper landing. Commenting on the failure of the SN9, the principal integration engineer of Space said, “Again, we’ve just got to work on that landing a little bit”.
SpaceX’s SN10 Starship has a “60% chance of landing.”
It is obvious that this tweet made by Elon Musk has installed a lot of hope in the hearts of many fans. The SN10 is expected to have improved a lot and will launch from Boca Chica, Texas. And even if the Starship isn’t able to land and crashed once again, SpaceX will continue to improve the starship, till they reach their goal. The company has already mastered the aerodynamic flip, and it is just a matter of time before they nail this too. The aim of the starship is to carry crew and cargo to Mars and eventually even further. And now the goals of the company is to get to mars by 2026, which is only possible if the company is soon able to figure out the landing problem.
What are your thoughts on Elon Musk’s comment on the SN10 starship? And do you think that the SN10 will be able to have a perfect landing or at least better than the SN8 and SN9? Let us know in the comments below. Also, if you found our content informative, do like and share it with your friends.
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