SpaceX, Elon Musks’s space exploration and technology startup, conducted the first-ever high altitude flight of Starship yesterday. Starship is the rocket that the company plans to use as a commercial aircraft and fly humans to the moon and mars. Although the spacecraft did not make a safe landing and rather exploded on impact, the experiment marks the highest any Starship prototype has flown.
The trial occurred yesterday afternoon in Boca Chica, Texas. It reached a height of 12.5 kilometers, spending a total of six minutes in the air before it crashed. Musk offered an explanation for the fiery landing, stating that all necessary data was collected and that the fuel header tank pressure was low during landing, causing the touchdown velocity to be much higher than required.
Read More: SpaceX’s Starship has flown a record 12.5 km into the air
