2023-04-24 02:52:18
Double punishment for Elon Musk. In addition to seeing his rocket explode in flight, during a test on Thursday, the billionaire learned that the failed launch had seriously damaged Space X’s launch pad in Texas.
Before the test flight, the boss of the space company had expressed his fears that the machine would explode before even being torn from the ground, destroying the launch pad at the same time. The rocket finally managed to take off before an explosion reduced it to dust after four minutes of flight, above the sea.
But the company seems to have underestimated the damage that a simple takeoff of this 120 m high mastodon could cause. “The engines, when they ignited, may have shattered the concrete, rather than just eroding it,” Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday. The gigantic launch tower withstood the shock. The huge base on which the vehicle rests (launch table) is also still there, even if it has been damaged. But under him, a deep crater has been dug, according to images published by specialists on social networks.
All around reigns a landscape of desolation, noted an AFP photographer. During takeoff, a shower of debris was catapulted into the nearby sea, SpaceX video shows. A cloud of dust reached a small town several kilometers away, according to local press. “The radius of debris and nuisance was probably larger than anyone anticipated,” said Olivier de Weck, a professor in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
“The main damage to the launch pad is below, where the flames (from the engines) attack the ground,” explained this specialist, several of whom are former students working for SpaceX. “The crater that has been created is going to have to be filled and repaired, and that will certainly take several months. The company “wrongly” thought the launch pad would withstand the test, admitted Elon Musk after the failure of the launch, adding that a new takeoff would probably be possible “in one or two months”.
A steel plate for the next shot
It would seem that the Starship launch pad was not equipped with two infrastructures generally essential for heavy launchers. First: a “deluge”. A structure that pours phenomenal quantities of water at the precise moment of ignition of the engines. Then: a “jet deflector” (or flues). A system of tunnels to redirect the gases emitted, protecting both the concrete and the rocket. Elon Musk, however, explained that Space X had begun construction of “a steel plate cooled by water” to be placed under the base of the rocket, which could not be “ready in time”.
Such a steel plate “would make sense, I think it will work,” said Philip Metzger, a former NASA employee who worked on the physics of launch pads. Designing a launch pad is as complex as developing a rocket, he pointed out.
But before being able to fly again, in addition to reinforcing its launch pad, SpaceX will first have to determine the cause of the problems encountered in flight. Several engines failed, and the rocket’s two stages failed to separate as expected, forcing SpaceX to activate the self-destruct command. Finally, it will be necessary to convince the air regulator, the FAA, to authorize Starship to take off again, noted Olivier de Weck. The agency confirmed Thursday’s test resulted in no injuries, but said it was overseeing the investigation into the blast. She assured that a new test flight would be conditional on public safety.
This first test, which looks like a failure, nevertheless remains “more of a success than a failure”, according to Olivier de Weck. “SpaceX gets to develop these amazing capabilities, because they’re willing to take risks and break things – but they learn from it. »
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