Musk Celebrates High-Altitude Starship Test Despite Landing Explosion

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk lauded the launch of unmanned rocket prototype Starship SN8 after it traveled nearly eight miles into the sky and returned to a landing pad before exploding.

“Successful ascent, switchover to header tanks & precise flap control to landing point,” Musk tweeted on Wednesday afternoon. “Fuel header tank pressure was low during landing burn, causing touchdown velocity to be high & RUD, but we got all the data we needed! Congrats SpaceX team hell yeah!!”