This stuff unfortunately doesn’t hit the mainstream media nearly enough, but SpaceX performed an historic test launch today. Starship Serial Number 8 (the 8th prototype) attempted to fly to 12.5km. I believe there was an engine failure during ascent but it was able to continue on with just two engines. I’m not sure if it made it to 12.5km but it successfully did its “belly-flop” maneuver, which I think is the first time that’s ever been done with a rocket. Then it drifted down for a surprising amount of time, then at the last second it turned upright again just as planned with what I assume was still just two engines, made what looked like a perfect bullseye landing and immediately exploded in epic fashion. I heard someone say the landing legs didn’t deploy.
So from a space nerd perspective we got everything we could have asked for: a mostly successful test but with some areas to improve on and a fantastic explosion. You may want to wait a day or two before looking for this on YouTube to give people time to collect all the camera angles and information.
If you haven’t been following this, it’s also important to look into why this flying machine is so revolutionary and potentially so important to our future.