“Awe’ve secured a lot for the next take-off test in a few months”, wrote tycoon Elon Musk on the social network Twitter, congratulating the company’s teams on the “formidable first test flight”, albeit unsuccessful, in Earth orbit.
The vehicle, made up of two integrated modules, the Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy rocket, took off shortly after 2:30 pm (Lisbon time) from SpaceX’s Starbase base, to applause from the audience, but exploded in the air after four minutes.
The causes of the explosion are yet to be determined, but SpaceX technicians still considered that today’s test, without cargo or crew, was good.
congratulations @SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship!
Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months. pic.twitter.com/gswdFut1dK
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2023
After reaching an altitude of more than 30 kilometers, the vehicle began to sway, lost orientation and exploded.
It was the second unsuccessful attempt to launch the spacecraft and the rocket together, for a first test of an orbital flight, after on Monday a technical problem prevented take-off.
Previously, the Starship prototype carried out suborbital tests, at about 10 kilometers of altitude.
Together, the Super Heavy and Starship are 120 meters tall and capable of carrying over 100 tons of cargo.
Today’s flight plan called for the rocket to separate from the spacecraft about three minutes after take-off and fall into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Then, the Starship spacecraft would start its six engines and continue its ascent alone, up to an altitude of approximately 150 kilometers.
After making a little less than one lap around Earth, for about an hour, the spacecraft would land in the Pacific Ocean.
It is with the Starship, designed to make trips to the Moon and Mars, that the North American space agency (NASA) intends to take astronauts to the lunar surface in 2025, in this case the first woman and the first black man, under the new Artemis lunar program.
Only American astronauts, 12 in all and all men, stepped on the Moon, between 1969 and 1972, within the scope of the Apollo program.
Astronauts will take off again from Earth towards the Moon aboard another spacecraft, the Orion, coupled to another rocket, the SLS, NASA’s most powerful but less powerful than SpaceX’s Super Heavy.
After separating from the SLS, a non-reusable rocket, Orion will head towards the Moon’s orbit, where it will dock with Starship (previously placed in lunar orbit). The SpaceX spacecraft will then proceed with part of the crew to the surface of the Moon.
SpaceX wants the Super Heavy and Starship to be fully reusable.
In the future, the rocket should land next to its launch tower and the spacecraft return to Earth with the help of retrorockets, a maneuver that was attempted several times in 2020 and 2021.
Also Read: SpaceX. This is how Elon Musk reacted to the Starship explosion
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