2023-04-20 15:57:55
Published on : Modified :
Shortly after taking off in Texas, the huge Starship rocket, the largest rocket in the world, developed by SpaceX for trips to the Moon and Mars, exploded in flight this Thursday, April 20. This explosion does not represent a failure for the company of billionaire Elon Musk, who congratulated the teams of his company and promised a new test ” in some months ».
At 120 meters, Starship was both taller than NASA’s new mega-rocket SLS (98m), which first blasted off in November, and the legendary Saturn V, the Apollo lunar program rocket (111 m). The black and silver juggernaut tore from the ground around 08:30 local time (13:30 UT) the Starbase space base, in the far south of Texas, under the shouts of joy of SpaceX employees, to finally explode a few minutes later.
The cause of the explosion was not yet known, but the fact that the rocket succeeded to take off from its launch pad is already a huge achievement. The boss of SpaceX, the billionaire Elon Musk, has also congratulated his teams and promised a new test: “ Congratulations to the SpaceX teams for this great first test flight ! “, he tweeted. ” We have learned a lot for the next take-off test in a few months. »
The rocket was expected to detach about three minutes after liftoff and fall back into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. According to the flight plans, the Starship was then to turn on its six engines and continue its ascent alone, up to an altitude of more than 150 km. After a little less than a circumnavigation of the Earth for about an hour, it should fall back into the Pacific Ocean. « It was predictable that it would go wrong for countless reasons », Analysis with RFI Stefan Barensky, journalist at Aerospatium, pointing out the rusticity of the launcher. ” Rusticity is not expensive, but it is not necessarily very reliable and the slightest breakdown can lead to a disaster. »
« Very risky »
The purpose of this test flight was to collect as much data as possible to improve the following prototypes, SpaceX warning even before takeoff that going through all the stages from the first test flight would be a feat. On Monday, a first launch attempt was canceled in the last minutes of the countdown, due to a technical problem. ” This is the first flight of a huge, very complex rocket “, had declared the day before Elon Musk, by qualifying this test of” very risky ».
SpaceX boss was keen to temper expectations, stating that reaching orbit on the first try was unlikely. He contented himself with hoping that the launch pad would not be destroyed by the explosion of the engines of “Super Heavy” at the time of ignition. ” My greatest wish is that, please […]we are far from the launch pad before something goes wrong “, he said. If this one ” fond “, rebuilding it could take” months “, he added.
The rocket already has customers: Starship’s first crewed flight is to be made with American billionaire Jared Isaacman. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, and American Dennis Tito (the first space tourist in history), have also said they want to embark on a trip around the Moon.
Starship must be able to carry up to 150 tons of cargo into orbit. For comparison, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket can only carry a little more than 22 tons in low Earth orbit. But the real innovation of Starship is that it must be fully reusable, which Elon Musk thinks is achievable by ” two or three years ».
(And with AFP)
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