2023-09-09 02:38:54
The most powerful rocket ever created will have to wait before returning to space. Starship, developed by SpaceX for trips to the Moon and Mars, will remain grounded while the company makes dozens of modifications requested by the American regulator on Friday, more than four months after its explosion in flight.
Sixty-three changes, including the creation of new parts “to avoid leaks and fires”, the correction of elements of the launch pad and the carrying out of more tests, are necessary, said the American agency overseeing the aviation, the FAA, after months of examinations.
Environmental Protection
On April 20, SpaceX teams deliberately exploded the rocket in the sky over Texas, four minutes after a faulty takeoff. Launcher detachment did not occur, and several engines failed. The fireball caused a cloud of dust that fell on a town miles away.
Boss Elon Musk had still congratulated his teams, hoping that this failure would allow us to learn a lot. But an investigation was quickly opened by the regulator, itself targeted by associations which accuse it of not having done enough to ensure environmental protection.
If the FAA investigation is now complete, the resumption of flights is not imminent at Boca Chica, the SpaceX base in Texas, indicated the American air policeman. “SpaceX must implement all corrective actions that affect safety” and request a modification authorization “before any new takeoff of Starship,” notes the FAA.
Another Starship rocket is currently standing on a launch pad, ready to lift off, according to images from SpaceX. The company said that the first test was “an essential step in advancing the capabilities of the most powerful launch system ever built” and had “enabled many lessons to be learned that directly contributed to the changes underway” on the rocket and the ground structures.
Starship, 120 m high, is both larger than NASA’s new mega-rocket, SLS (98 m) and the legendary Saturn V, the Apollo lunar program rocket (111 m). For Elon Musk’s company, Starship must make it possible to go to Mars in the future with a fully reusable vehicle. NASA has chosen the Starship spacecraft (second stage of the rocket) to become the lander for the Artemis 3 mission, which will soon bring astronauts back to the lunar surface for the first time in more than half a century.
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