SpaceX: Starship giant rocket to lift off for the next time on June 5
SpaceX has presented a summary of the analysis of the third Starship launch and has set a date for the next one. The target date is next week.
The Starship above the earth
(Image: SpaceX)
SpaceX is planning the next test flight of the giant Starship rocket on June 5 - if the necessary permits are granted by then. This was announced by the US space company, which also presented a summary of the third test flight. This was an important step on the way to rapidly reusable rockets. Based on the analysis, changes have already been made to the next test rocket. Now that it has been shown that the world's largest rocket can reach Earth orbit, the next step is to get the subsequent landing right. Improvements have been made to both the hardware and the software of the rocket.
Updates already implemented
According to the summary of the analysis of the previous test flight published by SpaceX, everything went smoothly until the main stage was to fly to its landing site after separation. Half of the engines activated for this purpose would have stopped working prematurely, probably due to blocked filters. In addition, the spacecraft flying in space would have soon lost control of its orientation and turned around itself in an unplanned manner. This was probably due to clogged valves. On re-entry into the atmosphere, the spacecraft therefore became significantly hotter than expected - contact was lost around 49 minutes after take-off. The sources of the error should have been rectified by the next test flight.
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Despite these problems, the third test flight was an enormous success. After the launch in Texas, the giant rocket flew halfway around the world and finally crashed unplanned into the Indian Ocean. Less than five years after the rocket was first unveiled, the rocket's spaceship, known only as "Ship", did not reach orbit, but it did travel for around half an hour at an altitude of more than 200 km at over 26,000 km/h. A total of 33 engines catapulted the heaviest object in space travel history, weighing around 5,000 tons, into the air before the booster was undocked as planned. Thanks to the Starlink satellite internet, there were live images of the flight around the earth almost to the end.
The Starship consists of the Super Heavy booster, which is around 70 meters long, and the upper stage, which is around 50 meters long. The new giant rocket is designed to enable manned missions to the moon and Mars. The system is designed in such a way that the spaceship and rocket can be reused after returning to Earth. In the meantime, it is also intended to take astronauts to the moon for NASA. However, SpaceX hopes to reach Mars one day. In April 2023, a complete Starship took off for the first time, but only remained intact for a few minutes. On November 18, the second launch attempt was successful before the rocket exploded. SpaceX has announced nine launch attempts for this year, but this is unlikely to be possible.
(mho)
