According to the flight plan, after undocking the upper stage, the Starship was supposed to continue accelerating on its engines, complete an incomplete orbit around Earth, and fall into the water in the Hawaiian Islands area in about an hour. and a half. This time the test did not initially involve landing the two stages, but in the future they should be used as reusable stages. Musk expects it to be possible to successfully return both stages to the field in a few years.
The rocket consists of two parts – the Super Heavy upper stage and the Starship spacecraft. The ship has been tested several times, and this failure is not the first. It crashed four times before finally flying into the stratosphere in 2021, followed by an impressive vertical landing success. As for the first step, for her, the flight was the first first. Musk himself called the main purpose of the test to send the rocket on any long flight: “If only we didn’t destroy the spaceport.”
SpaceX engineers say Starship payload and design will allow up to 100 people to travel to Mars
Initially, the test was scheduled for Monday, but then the start of the engines was canceled at the last moment due to pressure issues.
There have been so many rocket launches from Elon Musk’s company in recent years that it’s hard to be surprised, but this SpaceX brainchild is special. Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever launched into space and is fully reusable. According to the company, this particular ship can become the main vehicle for American astronauts in the exploration of the Moon, Mars and “even further”.
The numbers speak for themselves. Starting weight – 5,000 tons. Height – 120 meters, of which about 50 meters fall on the ship located in the upper part. Diameter – 9 meters. The first stage has 33 Raptor engines, the second 6 engines. According to the flight plan, the rocket is capable of delivering from 150 tons of cargo in near-Earth orbit in reusable mode up to 250 tons in one. SpaceX says the spacecraft is capable of not only carrying building materials to establish bases on the moon, but also accommodating up to 100 people on a flight to Mars.
The class of super heavy rockets is a special weight category in which ready-made options fit on the fingers of one hand. Among the platforms already in flight, the Falcon Heavy (from the same SpaceX), as well as Boeing’s long-lasting SLS rocket, launched by NASA at the end of 2022, fall into this class with a certain draw. At the same time, both are significantly inferior to the giant ship in terms of carrying capacity, launch weight and engine thrust. And both could exit the market if Starship is successful.
SpaceX has previously stated that Starship is designed to completely replace the Falcon Heavy. As for the SLS, although its first flight late last year was a success, many experts in the United States believe that the future of this expendable rocket is vague due to the high cost of launches. The reusable concept behind Starship is, at least in theory, designed to reduce the cost of putting payloads into orbit. So while the first flight of American astronauts to the Moon this century will be on an SLS rocket with the Orion spacecraft, it is Starship that is expected to be used as a shuttle to land people on the surface of the Earth. earth satellite and return to the Orion spacecraft in lunar orbit, which will already bring them back.
However, as the crash showed, SpaceX engineers still have work to do.
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