[imagesource: SpaceX]

SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk, continues to forge ahead with business on a number of fronts, although everything isn’t going exactly to plan.

Last year, SpaceX and NASA celebrated the launch of the Falcon Crew Dragon, making history as the first commercial aerospace company to carry humans into Earth’s orbit, and to the International Space Station.

More recently, SpaceX announced the first commercial astronaut mission to orbit Earth, with billionaire tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and some lucky raffle winners leading the way.

Those are both huge wins, but on the flip side, SpaceX has had some difficulties with landing its Starship prototype rockets.

Back in December, there was an explosive landing, and it was a case of déjà vu yesterday with the latest uncrewed vehicle, codenamed SN9.

The BBC reports:

…SN9 climbed to 10km (6 miles) above the Texas Gulf coast, and then descended to try to put down under control a short distance from where it had lifted off… [before] slamming into the ground in flames…

Nonetheless, SpaceX said a huge amount of data would be gained, and its engineers would press on with the programme.

“Remember, this was a test flight, (only) the second time we’ve flown Starship in this configuration,” said regular SpaceX webcast commentator John Insprucker.

“We’ve just got to work on that landing a little bit.”

Yeah, just a tad.

Here’s footage of the landing:

More on the SpaceX Starship concept, and why it’s being followed so closely:

Musk believes that once fully developed, the vehicle will be capable of taking people to Mars. It could also ferry people quickly around the globe. Putting satellites in orbit is another obvious application…

Musk has stated that Starship is now the number-one priority for SpaceX, beyond the Falcon rockets it currently routinely flies to serve satellite operators, the US Air Force and the US space agency (Nasa).

Given that top priority status, I would expect to see more Starship landings, or attempted landings, in the months to come.

[source:bbc]