This was INSANE to watch. The NASA Spaceflight commentators were completely nerding out, all cool objectivity tossed out the window.
Basically, SpaceX achieved 9 of 10 of its objectives, and it was amazing to watch this frigging tin can soar through the sky, deploy some fins, hover, flip over on its belly and smoothly descend again.
Until the end of course, which, given no lives were at risk, was one heck of an entertaining explosion as it didn't QUITE stick the landing. And when you're talking about rocket ships, a failure of inches leads to big booms.
SpaceX has already identified the problem and plans to have it fixed for SN9's test run soon.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/09/spacex-flies-its-starship-rocket-to-40000-feet-just-misses-the-landing-in-explosive-finale (follow the link for some awesome video)
Image credits: Trevor Mahlmann, SpaceX, National Geographic.
Originally posted on Facebook.