Elon Musk‘s rocket manufacturing firm SpaceX on Wednesday examined the engines of its Starship launch automobile for its sixth flight take a look at, even whereas its fifth flight’s timeline stays unsure.
What Occurred: The corporate took to social media platform X to share footage and movies from the static hearth take a look at. Throughout a static hearth take a look at, the two-stage rocket’s first-stage engines are ignited but it surely doesn’t depart the launchpad.
“Six engine static hearth of Flight 6 Starship,” the corporate wrote.
Earlier this month, SpaceX stated that Starship has been prepared for its fifth flight take a look at because the first week of August however has been postpone owing to “frivolous” and “patently absurd” licensing points.
“Sadly, we proceed to be caught in a actuality the place it takes longer to do the federal government paperwork to license a rocket launch than it does to design and construct the precise {hardware},” SpaceX stated.
The corporate stated that it not too long ago obtained a launch license date estimate of late November for the fifth flight from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), marking a two-month delay from the beforehand communicated date of mid-September.
The delay, SpaceX stated, was not primarily based on a brand new security concern however on “superfluous” environmental evaluation together with issues concerning the Starbase facility having a destructive impression on native natural world. Nonetheless, the corporate disputed these claims.
“Flight 5 is constructed and able to fly. Flight 6 will likely be able to fly earlier than Flight 5 even will get authorised by FAA!” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk stated on Thursday.
Previous Flight Assessments: SpaceX has carried out 4 flight checks with the Starship to this point.
SpaceX final launched Starship within the first half of June. In the course of the take a look at, the 2 phases of the automobile – the Starship spacecraft and the Tremendous Heavy booster – separated, and the booster subsequently had a tender splashdown within the Gulf of Mexico. The spacecraft ignited its engines and went into area, made a managed re-entry to Earth, and had a tender splashdown within the Indian Ocean.
Your entire flight lasted one hour and 6 minutes from launch. The important thing object of the flight was to re-enter Earth and the mission achieved it whereas withstanding harm to the automobile.
The flights earlier than achieved much less. Whereas the spacecraft failed to succeed in area within the first flight, it reached area and exploded within the second take a look at flight. In the course of the third flight take a look at, the spacecraft broke aside when re-entering Earth’s ambiance from area.
Upcoming Flight: The 2-stage Starship is touted because the world’s strongest launch automobile, standing 121 meters tall and weighing roughly 5,000 tonnes. For the upcoming flight, SpaceX’s aim is to catch Starship’s booster stage again at Starbase utilizing the launch tower’s mechanical arms, marking a major demonstration of Starship’s reusability.
The corporate is counting on frequent take a look at flights to check and improve the potential of the automobile. Musk stated in March that Starship is anticipated to have not less than six take a look at flights this yr. Nonetheless, solely two take a look at flights have been accomplished thus far in 2024.
Starship is essential to NASA’s desires of taking people again to the floor of the Moon.
NASA’s Artemis 3 mission slated to launch no sooner than September 2026 is anticipated to allow people to land again on the floor of the moon with the assistance of a lunar lander variant of the Starship spacecraft. The final time people set foot on the Moon was in 1972 with Apollo 17. Since then, no crew has traveled past low-Earth orbit.
Musk, in the meantime, is eyeing taking people to Earth’s neighboring planet Mars aboard the Starship. The primary Starship launch to Mars, Musk stated earlier this month, is anticipated in 2026 and won’t have a crew on board.
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Photograph courtesy: SpaceX
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