The Starship rocket has taken off on its second test flight, from the SpaceX space base in Boca Chica, in southern Texas (USA), 2:03 p.m., Spanish peninsular time. The expectation is maximum after the first failed attempt on April 20, which has led Elon Musk’s space company to carry out profound reforms both on the launch platform and on the spacecraft, destined to become the largest and most powerful of the history of the space race.
The countdown has begun and, ten minutes before launch, the two megarocket modules already had their tanks almost full of fuel. SpaceX has precisely detailed its plans for this testin which Starship will not yet complete a revolution around the Earth, but only its ability to take off and climb into low Earth orbit will be tested, also correctly carrying out the separation of the two modules that make up the space shuttle used on this flight: the huge propeller Booster 9 and the ship itself, the Ship 25.
The first key moment was the ignition of all 33 Raptor engines that the Starship rockets use to take off with the greatest power ever recorded by a space device. It surpasses both the Saturn 5 of the Apollo missions to the Moon of the 20th century and the SLS that NASA will use on the Artemis missions to return to the satellite during this decade. Although this step seemed to go well during the first Starship test, the damage caused to the base by the engine exhaust meant that SpaceX’s license to repeat the test during the last seven months was withdrawn.
Finally, after a multitude of modifications, such as a water cooling system designed to protect the platform from the explosion generated at takeoff, last Wednesday the US Federal Aviation Agency granted authorization to SpaceX to relaunch a Starship. . Musk’s company has also had to re-obtain the corresponding environmental authorizations, since its base is located next to a natural park on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
The second decisive moment took place around minute 2:50 minutes, when the milestone of separation between the booster and the upper part was achieved. There had occurred the other major failure during the first test and as the two modules failed to separate, SpaceX exploded its Starship in mid-flight. The separation is essential so that the upper part, the ship in which the pilots or the cargo would go in future missions, continues to ascend until reaching its destination in low Earth orbit, which is scheduled for minute 8:33 of the flight.
Essential to set foot on the Moon again
While the booster will have already fallen into the sea, the Starship will continue flying for approximately one hour and ten more minutes, until it begins its re-entry maneuver into the atmosphere. In this test flight she will end up falling over the Pacific Ocean. If all this goes well, SpaceX will put into practice in future tests what truly differentiates the Starship from NASA’s lunar rockets (in addition to its greater power): the two modules of Elon Musk’s megarocket are prepared to return to the base , lay gently and be reused in a matter of hours. NASA’s SLS system for traveling to the Moon is made up of single-use rockets.
With his Starship reusable megarocket project, Musk aims to exponentially increase the human capacity to lift tons of cargo into Earth orbit, and that is an essential step to be able to establish bases on the Moon and also to travel to Mars in the future. But long before that, the Starships are already called upon to play an important role in the return to the Moon. NASA will use a modified version of the Starship upper module as the landing module, so that the first woman can set foot on the lunar surface. That mission is scheduled for the end of 2025 and, with two years to go, Musk’s gigantic space shuttle has not yet managed to fly successfully. A new ruling today would increase NASA’s concern about being able to meet the dates of its next Artemis missions.
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