Elon Boasts of Huge Starship Improvements Immediately Before It Blows Up Spectacularly

SpaceX experienced yet another failure during its ninth test launch of its Starship vehicle Tuesday evening. The rocket spun out of control as it tumbled through space, causing it to make an uncontrolled descent in the Indian Ocean that ended in an all-too-familiar blast. As is always the case after a failure, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was optimistic. During an interview with Ars Technica's Eric Berger, published mere minutes before the launch of Tuesday's test flight, Musk was adamant that "we've got about an 80 percent chance of having solved" issues related to the design of the spacecraft's heat shield tiles and the cause of the "explosions in the last two flights in the upper stage engine bay." But given this week's disaster, Musk may have put the horse before the cart. The prototype, dubbed Ship 35, never even got close to a controlled reentry. Live footage shared by the space company showed the untiled side of the spacecraft heating up as it was enveloped with flaming plasma. How ... Read full article.