It was yesterday morning in Boca Chica, Texas, when SpaceX conducted the flight test of the Starship prototype identified as SN11, the fourth after that of March 3, 2020. There was fog in the area, and many people thought that the test would have been postponed, instead SN11 was launched. The consequence is that practically nothing could be seen and only the cameras installed on the prototype showed something, even if it was information concerning the activity of the three Raptor engines. Something happened during the descent maneuvers, the images froze, and from the commentary on the live view, the viewers discovered that SN11 exploded for reasons yet to be verified. It seems like a step backward for SpaceX, but Elon Musk’s company continues with the tests, and the plan is to fly SN15, skipping three prototypes. There’s also progress for the SuperHeavy rocket.

Tests of the new spacecraft called Starship are continuing at increasing speed with SpaceX continuing to build prototypes that end up destroyed in their tests. The company is accumulating considerable experience about this spacecraft that can also be launched on its own and the new Raptor engines.

In yesterday’s test, even the official SpaceX commentator seemed not to know what was going on, and that made it even stranger. When a prototype ends up destroyed in flight and not in a crash, it makes sense that the commentator is unable to interpret the data he has available in real-time. In yesterday’s test, it was impossible to see anything, so the telemetry data was more crucial than ever and the viewers expected more information, but even in the hours following the test, communications were fragmented. Elon Musk wrote in various tweets that one of the Raptor engines had pressurization issues and that SpaceX engineers should have information after examining the debris.

Between the very quick setup of the SN11 prototype and new problems with the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) for the launch authorizations, it’s difficult to form an accurate opinion of this test. It seems like a step back from the previous tests, which at least saw prototype landings, but for the engineers, the data collected may justify the destruction of SN11. SpaceX’s policy has always been to push prototypes at the cost of destroying many of them, and it continues to broadcast the tests publicly.

Meanwhile, news also arrived about the development of the SuperHeavy rocket. The first prototype, called BN1, has already been discarded and will be used only for ground tests, so BN2 could be the one that will be used for the launch test. SuperHeavy will have 28 Raptor engines, so we can expect destructive tests for this new rocket as well.