It happened! The flight of the third prototype of the spacecraft STARSHIP SN10 has passed successfully! The road to the moon and Mars are open! Bravo Ilon! Congratulations!
But today it started a long day a little nervously, and for both people, it is probably for cars. The first start attempt took place almost two hours earlier. But it was interrupted by automatic literally at the time of the alleged start, right at the time of the ignition of the engines.
But the start attempt after that was not canceled, and repeating the refueling procedure, again launched the countdown to the second start attempt.
Go!
At some point, about the 40th second, it even seemed that nothing would not happen even for the third time, as it seemed that the "exhaust" acquired a greenish tint that could talk about a possible malfunction in one of the engines. We remember StarShip SN8, and how the copper elements of the engine began to roast on the landing, leaving a green trail.
But no, this time everything was actually perfect!
As engines turned off as the engines turned off. On the third minute of flight, 2nd on the fourth minute, and at the beginning of a fourth minute, reaching the declared height of the test flight was disabled 3rd engine, and StarShip SN10 moved to the managed descent phase.
It was the most exciting moment. On the flight 6:00, after the flip maneuver, all three engines turned on successively, and the turnover and stabilizing the ship two engines turned off, and StarShip sat on one running engine.
When smoke scattered
When the smoke dispersed the prototype of the spacecraft stood exactly where they wanted, waited, and what exceeds the magnificent Spacex engineers worked!
Bravo Spacex, Bravo Ilon! The road to the moon and Mars is open.
P.S.The following important test will be the test flight prototype of the Super Heavy launch vehicle.
P.P.S.Unfortunately, a few minutes after the successful landing, StarShip SN10 exploded. What it was still difficult to say. You may need to work on the fire extinguishing system ...
But in any case, today we witnessed great progress in the StarShip program.