Why does the SpaceX Starship keep EXPLODING?

Video from the channel CNET about Starship, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 8:56. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

Explainer piece by CNET, published in March 2021, on why Starship prototypes kept exploding during their test flights at Boca Chica. It reviews the system's design and the 2019–2021 tests, with commentary from Chris James of the University of Queensland's hypersonics school.

Testing began with Starhopper, a single-engine vehicle that rose 20 metres in July 2019 and, a month later, 150 metres in a one-minute flight. In the summer of 2020, SN5 and SN6 completed successful hops. High-altitude flights began in December 2020 with SN8: the prototype climbed on three Raptor engines, shut them down one by one, descended horizontally guided by its flaps, and had to right itself using its engines just before landing.

SN8 reached about 12.5 km, but low pressure in the fuel header tank prevented it from braking enough, and it was destroyed on touchdown. SN9, two months later, reached 10 km and over-rotated before landing. SN10, in March 2021, achieved Starship's first soft landing and exploded about ten minutes later. SN11 launched in fog and was lost just before landing. For the final design, figures cited include a height of 120 metres, a 9-metre fairing, and methane/liquid-oxygen propulsion, with the Starship vehicle atop the Super Heavy booster, designed to be reusable. James attributes the explosions to a strategy of real, fast tests conducted in public view.