SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, canceled the long-awaited first launch of its Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket in the final minutes of the countdown due to a frozen valve, delaying an uncrewed test flight at least two days.
The 120m-tall, two-stage rocket was scheduled to launch from SpaceX’s launch site in Texas this morning. However, the company announced on live television that the launch had been delayed by at least 48 hours, citing a frozen booster valve in the lower stage rocket booster. The next launch window will be on Wednesday.
Starship’s first launch into space will be a key step in SpaceX’s quest to send humans back to the Moon and then Mars – at least initially as part of NASA’s recently opened Artemis program.
A successful first flight would also turn into a test of Starship, the most powerful launcher on Earth.
The Super Heavy launcher lower stage and the Starship that will be delivered to space are designed as reusable components capable of returning to Earth for a soft landing, a maneuver that has already become routine for the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
But none of the floors will be restored after the first test flight in space. Instead, the two parts of the spacecraft will end their first flight with an emergency landing at sea. After passing almost a full orbit around the Earth, the upper stage – Starship is expected to crash into the ocean Peaceful.
Last Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration granted a license for the first test flight of the new missile system.
If all goes according to plan, all 33 Raptor engines will ignite at the same time to carry Starship into space before the craft re-enters the atmosphere and plunges into the Pacific Ocean at supersonic speeds at approximately 97 km off the coast of northern Hawaii. .
After separation from Starship, the Super Heavy booster is expected to begin a controlled return flight before plunging into the Gulf of Mexico.
The Starship rocket is nearly twice as powerful as NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), which made its first unmanned flight into orbit in November, sending NASA’s Orion on a 10-day journey around the moon and back.
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