Elon Musk pays tribute to fallen Starship SN10
The prototype exploded Wednesday shortly after landing
Billionaire Elon Musk acknowledged the fiery death of SpaceX's SN10 Starship prototype on Friday.
"SN10 is in Valhalla now," he tweeted to his more than 48.5 million followers, alongside a video of the incident.
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In Norse mythology, Valhalla is the great hall where heroes who died nobly in battle are received.
It was a running theme for Musk, tweeting just three minutes earlier: "Cybervikings of Mars."
Vikings, sea-faring Scandinavian raiders also known as Norsemen, date back to the eighth century. Their age lasted for less than 300 years, but their lore has been passed down and exists in popular culture.
In addition, Musk has big plans for a mission to the red planet and in December he said he remained “highly confident” SpaceX will land humans on Mars by 2026.
The SN10 Starship is an important part of that journey, although Wednesday's explosion was not the first. The spacecraft did technically land "in one piece" during the high-altitude suborbital test before going exploding on the landing pad in Boca Chica, Texas.
The Starship is also a crucial component of Musk's proposed private commercial space trip scheduled for 2023.
The stainless Starship is 160 feet tall and has a 30-foot diameter. SpaceX says it can carry more than 100 metric tons into orbit.
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Representatives for the company have said Starship, like their go-to Falcon 9 rocket, could begin launching satellites to Earth orbit as soon as 2022, according to Space.com.
Fox Business' James Leggate contributed to this report.