Following a mostly successful test flight of SpaceX’s Starship over Texas Tuesday the spaceship prototype came back down for a crash landing, similar to another test the company completed last month.
The company was planning to test another prototype of the Starship, known as Serial No. 9, or SN9 last week but the Federal Aviation Administration had not yet given SpaceX launch approval needed for flight.
On Tuesday, they got the go-ahead from the FAA. SN9 launched to 10 kilometers from the company’s site in Boca Chica, Texas, a small beachside town along the Gulf of Mexico just north of the Rio Grande River.
The shiny spaceship powered by three Raptor engines had a smooth flight up to 10 kilometers then each engine began to shut down,