--- title: "Elon Musk Laments “Foolish” Mistake That Led to Starship Explosion" description: "SpaceX CEO Elon Musk figured out what went south during Tuesday's launch of the company's Starship SN9 prototype." date: "2021-02-04" modified: "2021-02-04" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-engine-mistake-starship-explosion" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Space" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "SpaceX" - "Starship" - "the digest" --- # Elon Musk Laments “Foolish” Mistake That Led to Starship Explosion ![SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has a new idea about what went wrong during Tuesday's launch of the company's Starship SN9 prototype.]() *\Image: NASASpaceFlight\* ## Testing, Testing SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has his regrets about tests of his space company's Starship rocket. The latest two prototypes [went up in flames]() during their respective maiden voyages, in December and earlier this week. One of the main culprits for the explosions: the sequence of events the spacecraft had to run through as they descended in order to first right themselves and then provide enough thrust to not get crushed by the rapidly approaching ground. It's an extremely difficult maneuver to pull off. Earlier today, [Musk admitted]() that "we were too dumb" to light only two engines to provide enough landing thrust. By design, Starship only requires the thrust of two Raptor engines to make a soft landing. ## Foolish Mistake Igniting all three of the SN9 prototype's Raptor rocket engines once approaching the ground would have provided fewer points of failure during Tuesday's test flight. In other words, lighting three engines would allow it to chose the two engines required to make a soft landing. Responding to [SpaceX enthusiast Tim Dodd](), better known as Everyday Astronaut, on Twitter, [Musk acknowledged]() what went wrong. "It was foolish of us not to start three engines and immediately shut down one, as two are needed to land," Musk replied. Luckily, it's a change that can be implemented for SN10, [according to Musk](). ## Going to Mars SpaceX has its work cut out for it. Developing an orbital rocket capable of sending 100 passengers as far as Mars is a huge undertaking. But while an explosion looks violent and destructive, engineers are able to gain a ton of insights into what goes wrong. "We got a lot of good data, and the primary objective — to demonstrate control of the vehicle in the subsonic re-entry — looked to be very good, and we will take a lot out of that," SpaceX principal integration engineer John Insprucker said during SpaceX's launch webcast on Tuesday. **More on Starship:** *[Elon Musk Breaks Silence on Starship Crash: “We Were Too Dumb”]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()