2023-04-17 15:39:44
SpaceX plans to carry out the first test flight of Starship on Monday, the most powerful rocket ever built, designed to send astronauts to the Moon and perhaps beyond.
The launch is scheduled at 8:30 am (Colombian time) from the huge Texan base of the private space company, owned by billionaire Elon Musk.
If this Monday’s attempt is postponed for different reasons, other launches are scheduled for this week.
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The US space agency, NASA, chose the Starship capsule to transport its astronauts to the Moon as part of the Artemis III mission, scheduled to depart in late 2025 or later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5QXreqOrTA
The mission
Starship consists of a reusable capsule about 50 meters high that carries equipment and cargo, and the first stage Super Heavy rocket booster, about 70 meters.
SpaceX completed a successful test-firing of all 33 Raptor engines in Starship’s first-stage booster in February.
The Super Heavy booster was tethered to the ground during test firing, called static firing, to prevent it from taking off.
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The rocket has never flown in its full configuration, powered by the first stage.
“Success maybe, thrill guaranteed,” Musk tweeted on Friday.
NASA will carry astronauts into lunar orbit in November 2024 using its own space rocket called the Space Launch System (SLS), which has been in development for more than a decade.
mighty ship
Starship is bigger and more powerful than the SLS. It generates 17 million pounds of thrust, more than twice the amount of the Saturn V rockets used to send Apollo astronauts to the Moon.
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SpaceX hopes to launch a Starship into orbit and resupply it so it can continue its journey to Mars or beyond. The idea of employing a reusable launcher is to reduce the cost of missions.
Each Starship flight could then cost “less than $10 million,” Musk said early last year.
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