Spacex starship finally lands without exploding, only to explode moments later

SpaceX has completed the latest test of its Mars-bound Starship spacecraft, marking another milestone towards Elon Musk’s Mars ambitions.

The high-altitude test of Starship SN10 was the first major flight test of a Starhip prototype to land on the launchpad, with both SN8 and SN9 both crashing in a fiery explosion upon landing.

Roughly eight minutes after landing, however, SN10 exploded in a massive fireball.

[nd]

Who cares that it exploded! It still landed! It’s a prototype vehicle!

[Mike_]

Bet they made the mistake of hiring a Network Rail project manager for this ...

[oldgraybeard]

SN-10 exploded a moment after landing. Not enough space between the fuselage under-skirt and the pad. Explosive fuel built up in the gap without enough room to fully vent; residual heat ignited the overpressure gas like the combustion chamber of a car's engine. The system needs real landing legs that hold the bottom of the fuselage away from the ground, at least twice the height of a raptor engine bell. You could see the escaping gasses trying to burn off on one side where the little feet held open a corner of the skirt; but the leaning ship told me that part of the skirt was against the ground trapping unburnt gasses underneath it. The flight computer was good. The structural design engineers fu**ed up.

[Empericalmonkey]

It thought it was actually going to Mars....little guy couldn't handle being back on earth for 5 mins.

[handsoffmygunmf]

Venus would be a better option, because it's like a tropical rain forest.