SpaceX Intentionally Destroys Huge Tank For Its Starship

Liquid nitrogen cryogenic strength test underway ☃️ pic.twitter.com/qRPBLInqm0

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2020

Going into space and traveling to other celestial bodies will certainly be dangerous. To at least reduce the possibility of mishaps, scientists make sure that the things they send in space are really durable. They test the toughness of these things here on Earth, and that’s just what SpaceX did.

Late last Tuesday (January 28), aerospace company SpaceX tested a prototype of their Starship Mars-colonization spacecraft. They ended up blowing the spacecraft’s lid off.

During a cryogenic strength test at the company's South Texas facility near the village of Boca Chica, SpaceX filled the prototype's 30-foot (9 meters) test tank with ultracold liquid nitrogen and pressurized the tank until it "popped." This video was captured by Spadre.com, a tourism information site for the nearby South Padre Island that offers live camera views of SpaceX's Starship work.

While the destructive test may not look like good news for the private spaceflight company, this event actually represents a major milestone for Starship. It demonstrated that the fuel tank can withstand the pressure it would experience on future human missions to the moon and Mars.

At least we’re sure that they did not do this test in vain.

See the video over at Space.com.

(Image Credit: Elon Musk/ Twitter)