2023-04-20 20:20:30
Musk “learned a lot for the next test”… SpaceX “Today is a great day”
On the 20th (local time), the space company SpaceX led by Elon Musk launched the first earth orbit test flight of the large spacecraft ‘Starship’ developed for the moon and Mars exploration, but failed.
SpaceX launched Starship from the space launch facility ‘Starbase’ in Boca Chica Beach, southern Texas, USA at 8:33 am (local time) on the same day.
On the 20th (local time), at the space launch facility “Starbase” in Boca Chica Beach, southern Texas, USA, the large spacecraft “Starship” developed by SpaceX, a space company led by Elon Musk, for exploration of the Moon and Mars was first launched. It went on a test flight to earth orbit, but 4 minutes after takeoff, it exploded while spinning in the sky for unknown reasons. AFP Yonhap News
However, the Starship, which rose vertically, exploded in the air after spinning around in flight about 4 minutes after taking off.
According to the plan, after about 3 minutes, the ‘Super Heavy’ rocket, the lower part of the entire two-stage launch vehicle, was separated and the spacecraft Starship should have started orbital flight, but for unknown reasons, it did not succeed.
In this test flight, no astronauts were boarded or cargo was loaded.
After the failed flight, SpaceX tweeted, “The Starship experienced an unexpected and rapid dismantlement prior to the phased separation.”
Starship reached an altitude of about 32 km before the explosion.
Originally, the launch time was scheduled for 8:28 a.m. on this day, but some problems occurred with about 40 seconds left in the countdown, and after maintenance, the launch took place about 5 minutes later than scheduled.
After the failed test flight, Musk wrote on Twitter: “Congratulations to the SpaceX team on an exciting test launch,” and “learned a lot for the next test in a few months.”
According to his words, the next test flight is likely to be attempted in a few months.
Starship is a spacecraft developed by SpaceX with the goal of sending people and cargo to the Moon and Mars. It is 50m long and 9m in diameter, and was developed to load up to 150t of cargo inside the spacecraft.
The first-stage rocket ‘Super Heavy’ (69m) launched with it is the largest of all rockets ever, and has been evaluated as the most powerful rocket with a thrust of 17 million pounds when it operates normally.
It is twice as powerful as the ‘Space Launch System’ (SLS, propulsion: 8.8 million pounds), which is the strongest among the launch vehicles possessed by NASA, and is the equivalent of the Saturn V rocket (7.6 million pounds) used in the Apollo program in the 1960s and 1970s. ) far exceeds the driving force of
SpaceX has tested the performance of the Starship and Super Heavy separately, and this is the first time that the two parts have been combined to fly as a whole.
Starship has undergone vertical take-off and landing test flights and high-altitude test flights with several prototypes, but this was the first launch of the Super Heavy.
SpaceX attempted to launch the Starship three days ago on the 17th, but delayed the launch due to a problem with the rocket booster’s pressurization valve freezing about 8 minutes before launch.
Earlier, in a combustion test of 33 raptor engines conducted on the ground in early February, two engines did not start, but it was evaluated that they produced enough thrust to climb into orbit.
SpaceX’s launch relay team said after the flight failed that day, “It appears that three of the 33 Raptor engines have turned off,” suggesting that there may have been a problem with the rocket engine.
Although the orbital flight failed, the SpaceX relay team was encouraged by the Starship’s first take-off and congratulated themselves, saying, “Today was an amazing day.”
If the separation of the Starship and the Super Heavy was done properly on this day, the Starship would fly in Earth orbit for 90 minutes and then get into the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii, and the super heavy rocket that was separated first would be recovered in the Gulf of Mexico, close to the launch site.
Photo = AFP Yonhap News
Near Boca Chica Beach, where the launch took place, thousands of people who came to watch the launch of Starship gathered together for a countdown.
They cheered as the rocket launched with a roar, huge flames and clouds of smoke, but regretted that it failed after a few minutes.
In the future, Starship will also be used as a lunar lander in the third phase of NASA’s ‘Artemis Project’, which sends mankind to the moon in half a century, so NASA also paid attention to Starship’s first test flight attempt on this day.
“Congratulations on Starship’s first combined flight test,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson tweeted.
“With great risk comes great reward, every great achievement in history has required some calculated risk,” he added. “I look forward to SpaceX’s next flight test.”
[ⓒ 세계일보 & Segye.com, 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]
#SpaceX #spacecraft #Starship #test #flight #failed.. #Retry #months