Direct | Launch of ‘Starship’: the megarocket flies with the challenge of not exploding on its return to Earth

The mega rocket Starship is ready to take off, on the launch ramp of the SpaceX base in Boca Chica (Texas, USA). The two main components, the large booster rocket – Super Heavy Booster – and the upper ship – called Starship, or simply Ship – are assembled to form a set 121 meters high, the largest size ever achieved by a human spacecraft. The launch sequence is scheduled to begin at 2:50 p.m. Spanish peninsular time.

Despite the great achievement of reaching space, the third test flight of Musk’s megarocket ended with a double explosion. Its two components, the propellant and the upper stage Starship, lost control and exploded during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. Now SpaceX has set the goal, for this fourth test, of achieving controlled re-entry of both elements. It is an essential advance for Starship Not only does it break all records for size and power, but it is also a completely feasible spacecraft.

This reusability of the ship and the propellant was key for NASA to select Starship as the lander for its return to the Moon in the coming years. But Elon Musk himself has cooled the expectations of being able to pose successfully. Starship in this test, through his social network If everything goes as planned in the mission plan, the upper stage will fall into the Indian Ocean, while the booster will have previously carried out a soft landing simulation on the sea in the Gulf of Mexico, not far from the launch base. .

During the third test, last March, the ignition of the engines that were supposed to stop the rocket and prepare the controlled landing maneuver of the Super Heavy Booster propellant failed. Regarding the upper part, the ship intended to transport cargo and astronauts in the future, Musk has also commented that “there are many difficult problems to solve, but the biggest of the remaining is creating a reusable heat shield for orbital return, which which has never been done before.”

For this fourth test, therefore, SpaceX will focus on those details and has renounced other ambitious objectives, such as reaching orbital flight height or carrying out fuel transfer tests between its tanks – achievements that it did surpass in the third test. . The mega rocket Starship It carried out its first test launch in April 2023 and, although it managed to turn on most of its engines and take off, it exploded after three minutes of flight, without being able to separate its two modules; In addition, the launch caused severe damage to the launch ramp and raised concerns about its impact on the natural environment surrounding the SpaceX base in Boca Chica. In its second attempt, in November 2023, the flight lasted eight minutes and SpaceX did manage to separate the rocket and the ship after the great initial push of takeoff; However, this hot separation damaged the two modules, which were lost shortly thereafter.

In its usual trial and error strategy, which has made SpaceX a leader in the aerospace sector, Musk’s company claims to have achieved historic milestones in each of the previous test flights and learned important lessons. For example, on this occasion they will try to remove a couple of thermal protection plates from the hull of the ship to see how it behaves on reentry. However, the development of the Starship model is going much slower than promised when the project was presented. Thus, NASA has postponed for the moment until 2026 its new manned mission to the Moon, initially planned for 2025 and intended for a woman to walk on the surface of the Earth’s satellite for the first time.

Also, this week, Japanese tycoon Yusaku Maezawa has announced the cancellation of the dearMoon projectwith which he intended to fly over the Moon himself and seven other crew members aboard a Starship before NASA returned there half a century after the last manned lunar missions. Delays in the development of the megarocket have led the billionaire to give up on his dream. Upcoming test flights, like today’s, will begin to clarify whether SpaceX can fulfill its plans to have the reusable megarocket ready in 2025; and whether, therefore, stepping on the Moon again in this decade is a realistic goal.

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