Billionaire Elon Musk’s Starship, an American reusable spacecraft launched April 20 on a Super Heavy rocket from the Boca Chica launch site in Texas, ended in partial success. It rose to a height of 39 km and exploded.
The launch from Boca Chica Spaceport in Texas was the culmination of years of preparation for launch and garnered a lot of attention around the world. Thousands of spectators flocked to the Gulf Coast to witness the historic launch that has been awaited for some years.
According to the plan, after the launch, the Starship spacecraft was supposed to separate from the first stage, go into low Earth orbit and fall into the ocean in the Hawaiian Islands region, performing a revolution around the Earth. Footage released showed the launch was successful, the vessel began to slowly climb, and the flight continued confidently for the first two minutes.
An emergency situation began to develop in the third minute of the flight – having climbed 39 kilometers, the ship could not separate from the first stage, together they began to fall through the air, losing altitude, after which an explosion followed. It is not yet known if the explosion occurred due to excessive exposure to aerodynamic forces or if the rocket’s self-detonation system operated during an abnormal launch.
However, experts noted that the problems may have started just as the rocket left the launch pad – three of the 33 engines on the first stage were not working.
Giant among rockets
Starship, along with the Super Heavy booster, is the owner of several record-breaking indicators in rocket technology at once. This is the tallest and most powerful rocket system ever launched into space, the overall height is 120 meters, which is 30 meters higher than the height of the Statue of Liberty with a pedestal At New York.
At the same time, the Super Heavy booster has a record number of engines for the first stages of all rockets that put it and the payload into orbit – 33. These are promising Raptor liquid engines that run on methane and oxygen. Their total thrust is 75,315 kN, more than the thrust of the first stage of the famous Saturn V rocket, which launched the Apollo lunar missions into space.
The system is fully reusable – the Starship and Super Heavy booster must return to Earth and land in an upright position using rocket engines at special sites, much like the first stages of Falcon 9 rockets return to Earth for reuse for several years. .
However, during the first test spaceflight, he was not supposed to save the first stage and the ship – both were supposed to fall into the ocean and drown. On the eve of the launch, authorization for a test flight was issued by the United States Federal Aviation Administration. On the eve of the launch, the experts differently assessed the chances of a successful launch. Elon Musk himself said that the main purpose of the rocket was to get away from the launch site.
“The main thing is not to explode on the launch pad, he said. It’s a very risky flight. This is the first launch of a gigantic, very complex rocket. There are a million possibilities for that a rocket doesn’t fly. We’re going to be very careful, and if we see anything that worries us, we’ll reschedule the launch. If the launch is successful, I’ll consider any outcome that doesn’t lead to the destruction of the launch pad like a victory.
“SpaceX founder Elon Musk estimated the chance of a successful launch at 50%, but I think he deliberately lowered expectations. On the eve of his Falcon 1 rocket’s first launch in March 2006, Musk told reporters the rocket had a 90 percent chance of reaching orbit. But the first three rocket launches ended in failure, – think American space observer Eric Berger. “But since then, SpaceX has made significant progress in rocket launches. In 2010 the Falcon 9 rocket made its first launch and in 2018 the Falcon Heavy flew. Then three versions of the Starship, Starhopper, SN5 and SN8 were launched successfully. So I estimate that the last six new rockets that SpaceX launched for the first time were more or less successful launches.
Different versions of Starship prototypes were tested in atmospheric tests, during which engineers practiced maneuvering, braking and soft landings on the ground. Static fire tests of the Super Heavy Accelerator were carried out in February this year.
Why is Starship necessary?
Today, Space X’s Falcon 9 rocket is the most launched rocket in the world, with 24 launches since the start of 2023 alone. Starship should be the next step in rocket technology from SpaceX – this ship is able to put more goods and people into low Earth orbit, and since the transport system is fully reusable, this should lead to a drastic reduction in the cost of launches.
But above all, Musk expects the ship to usher in a new era in interplanetary travel. This ship is also planned to be used to deliver people to the moon. So, under a contract with NASA, SpaceX is to develop a special modification of the ship to deliver astronauts for future Artemis-3 and Artemis-4 missions from lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon. The cost of the contract with NASA for the creation of such a ship is about 3 billion dollars.
Finally, Musk sees the Starship as a key component of future systems capable of carrying people to deep space and, first and foremost, to Mars. “He sees Starship as a huge possible paradigm shift, an incredible increase in cargo capacity – the ability to get people, in large numbers, to Mars,” said the USC professor and NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman. There is a huge advantage here, but also a big risk, because it is very difficult. No one has built rockets close in size – twice as large as the previous giants.
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