That will still be regarded as a demonstration flight before the Crew Dragon receives certification by NASA.

A test designed to go wrong

For veteran space watchers, almost every rocket launch is filled with nerve-racking worry that something will go wrong. Failures in the history of spaceflight have destroyed expensive payloads or have ended tragically, as in the case of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986, when the seven astronauts aboard were killed.

Sunday’s launch, of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a Crew Dragon capsule on top, was one of the few times you could look forward with anticipation to destruction.

It was over quickly.

About 84 seconds after liftoff, the rocket was approximately 12 miles in the air, speeding at 1,200 miles per hour. The nine engines of the booster stage were to shut off, simulating a failure. The flight termination system — which would destroy the rocket in case it veered off course — was active, but was not set off by a “thrust termination” in the booster. Still, the rocket was ripped apart and exploded as powerful SuperDraco thrusters on the Crew Dragon capsule propelled the capsule away from the rocket, taking it to an altitude of about 27 miles.