Boca Chica, Texas: The SpaceX Starship prototype #SN4 burst into flames yesterday as it completed its 5th static fire test, just as the ship was progressing towards the 150-meter hop, an anomaly occurred with a large amount of smoke being released from the bottom of the vehicle.
Mary (@BocaChicaGal) and @NASASpaceflight recorded the incident and the former was far enough from the incident to be safe, the extended version with commentary and replay is included below.
The static fire completed at 1:47 PM CDT and the anomaly occurred just two minutes later (1:49 PM CDT), this was the end of the Starship SN4 but the next upgraded Starship Prototype (SN5) is already getting ready for testing.
The thing to remember here is that this incident has nothing in common with the SpaceX Demo-2 spaceflight’s 2nd attempt that is going to be happening today at 3:22 p.m. EDT (if it isn’t aborted like the 1st attempt on Wednesday due to the bad weather).
Mary had the chance of recording the incident more closely and the Everyday Astronaut also recorded it from another angle, let’s watch:
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