Starship prototype SN9 is launched from the company’s development facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
SpaceX
SpaceX successfully landed a Starship prototype after a high-altitude flight test on Wednesday, marking a significant step forward for Elon Musk’s company in the development of the rocket.
But minutes after landing gently on a concrete pad, the prototype missile exploded. The cause of the explosion, whether it was intentional or unintentional, was not immediately clear.
The operational test flew Starship missile with serial number 10 or SN10. SpaceX wanted to launch the prototype at an altitude of 10 kilometers, or about 32,800 feet.
The Starship prototype is about 150 feet high, or about the size of a 15-story building, and powered by three Raptor rocket engines. Made of stainless steel, the rocket represents the early versions of the rocket launched in 2019 disclosed.
Musk’s company is developing Starship with the goal of launching cargo and people on missions to the Moon and Mars.
The SN10 flight was similar to that of SpaceX conducted in December and February, when it tested prototypes SN8 and SN9. Both earlier missiles completed several development goals – including aerodynamic testing, sequentially shutting down the engines, and turning to orient for landing – but both prototypes exploded on impact while attempting to land, but failed to slow down enough.
Like SN8 and SN9, the purpose of the SN10 flight was not necessarily to reach maximum altitude, but rather to test several important parts of the Starship system. The Starship prototype is about 50 meters high, or about the size of a 15-story building, and is powered by three Raptor rocket engines. SpaceX will fire all three engines for takeoff, then shut them down one by one in succession as it nears the top of the intended flight altitude.
SN10 aims to transfer propellant from the main tanks to the main tanks and then turn itself over for the “belly flop” reentry maneuver so that he can control his descent through the air with the rocket’s four valves. Then, in the final moments of descent, SpaceX will flip the rocket and return the rocket to a vertical orientation and fire the Raptor engines to slow itself down for a landing attempt.
Starship is one of two “Manhattan projects” that SpaceX is developing at the same time, and the other is the Starlink satellite Internet program. Musk has previously estimated it will cost around $ 5 billion to fully develop Starship, although SpaceX has not yet disclosed how much it has spent on the program.
The company raised $ 850 million last month with its latest fundraising campaign at a valuation of $ 74 billion.
Musk remains “firmly convinced” that Starship will “be safe enough for human transportation by 2023” – an ambitious goal as the company began serious development and testing of the missile in early 2019.
But Musk’s timeline is crucial, given that Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa will have paid for a Starship flight around the moon by 2023. Maezawa announced Tuesday that he is inviting eight members of the public to join his dearMoon mission, which will be a six-day journey. to the moon and back.
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