SpaceX Starship Prototype Fails

On Friday, SpaceX's plans for its Starship prototype hit a snag, when the vehicle suffered a spectacular failure during a cryogenic pressurization test. The vehicle actually flew about 15 metres into the air pushed by escaping gas from one of the tanks. Unfortunately, this wasn't a controlled landing and it crumpled when it hit the ground hard.

What’s unclear is what exactly went wrong with Starship SN01 and whether SpaceX expected it to fail during the test. Known as a cryogenic proof test, SpaceX pressurized the ship’s tanks with liquid nitrogen and a gas of some kind in an effort to verify its structural integrity and determine if it was safe to proceed to more risky tests. According to CEO Elon Musk, Starship SN01 was actually meant to support a full wet dress rehearsal (WDR) with liquid oxygen and methane, followed by a Raptor engine static fire test shortly thereafter.

The video is spectacular.

I don't think that this will be a major setback for SpacX. It seems clear that they didn't expect this, but their mode of working is very iterative; build a prototype, test, improve the next prototype, test more. They already have Starship SN02 in production, so expect another test in a few weeks.