Elon Mask’s SpaceX Starship Prototype Rocket Explodes On Landing After Test Launch

A prototype of a SpaceX rocket the company hopes will one day journey to Mars crashed in a fiery explosion as it tried to land upright after a test flight on February 2. It was the second such explosion after the last prototype of Starship met a similar fate in December. "We had again another great flight," said a SpaceX announcer on live footage that was broadcast online. "We've just got to work on that landing a little bit," he added. The company's founder Elon Musk was uncharacteristically quiet on social media, having announced the night before he was "Off Twitter for a while”. The rocket launched smoothly around 3:30 pm local time (2030 GMT) and progressively shut down its engines as it reached height of 10 kilometers (six miles), then performed a series of test manoeuvres in a horizontal "belly flop" position. It was when the rocket attempted to return to a vertical position for landing that the problems began, with the footage showing it came in much too fast and at a bad angle. It landed with a deafening crash, and exploded into bright orange flames and a dust cloud, but the fire did not spread. Watch the video to know more.