SpaceX, the test flight for the Starship spaceship is moving away?
The latest test of the SpaceX spaceship ends with the explosion of the booster. Starship's first orbital test flight could slip again, the powerful launch system designed by Elon Musk's company to bring the first man to Mars
The unmanned orbital test flight for SpaceX's Starship may not happen by the end of the year.
On Monday, a Super Heavy booster rocket developed by Elon Musk's SpaceX company for its next-generation Starship spacecraft caught fire during a ground test launch at the company's facility in Boca Chica, Texas. It was the last round of testing on the launch pad, but something went wrong. A Super Heavy booster designed for its massive launch vehicle exploded. According to NASA Spaceflight , which uploaded a video of the crash, the booster caught fire while the company was testing its Raptor engines. As Gizmodo notes, the current Super Heavy prototype, the Booster 7, is equipped with 33 Raptor version 2 engines.
SpaceX has long been preparing for Starship's first orbital test flight, but it could be delayed once again. The test in which the first stage of the launcher, called Super Heavy, will also be tested for the first time, foresees a 90-minute flight that should end off the coast of Hawaii, after having reached an altitude of over 100 kilometers.
All the details.
MUSK'S STATEMENTS
A Super Heavy Booster prototype on fire.
“Yes, it's actually not good. The team is evaluating the damage, ”SpaceX chief Musk told Twitter after the July 11 explosion of the Super Heavy Booster 7 prototype, as seen in a live stream recorded by the NASA Spaceflight website.
Yeah, actually not good. Team is assessing damage.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2022
WHAT IS STARSHIP
In the final configuration, shuttle and booster, the Starship will be 120 meters high with a carrying capacity to the Moon of at least 100 tons, surpassing what had been the most powerful space 'lift' so far, the Saturn V used for the Apollo missions. Starship's goal is to allow man to be brought back to the Moon in the next few years and, shortly thereafter, also to Mars.
Last May SpaceX successfully landed the fifteenth prototype of the Starship spaceship, chosen by NASA to return to the Moon.
ALL PAST EXPLOSIONS
However, between late 2020 and early 2021, SpaceX lost four prototypes of the spacecraft itself in a series of high-altitude test launches when return landing attempts ended in explosions.
But it's not just the blast of spaceships that contributed to the delay of the spacecraft's orbital test flight. Elon Musk's company plans were also hampered by regulatory approvals.
FAA APPROVAL
The flight must in fact be authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) which, however, has an ongoing investigation into the environmental impacts of SpaceX's operations. Without such approval, the company cannot launch the spaceship from the facility. The agency has finally approved a final environmental assessment of the proposed launch of the spaceship from Boca Chica in June.
WHEN IS STARSHIP'S FIRST ORBITAL FLIGHT?
Got the green light from the FAA last month, Musk said Starship will be "ready to fly" in July.
Yet this incident could affect the company's schedule, reports Engadget . It remains to be seen how severe the damage was and how much it will affect the company's plans for the first orbital flight vehicle.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/spacex-si-allontana-il-volo-di-prova-per-lastronave-starship/ on Tue, 12 Jul 2022 22:19:35 +0000.