“With this new “big leap”, SpaceX further widens the gap with Europe, China and its American competitors”

2024-10-14 08:37:00

Starship’s “Super Heavy” booster is seized on the starbase’s launch pad, near Boca Chica, Texas, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, during the test of Starship’s fifth flight. SERGIO FLORES/AFP

ANDlon Musk is capable of… the best. Not always on Earth (testimony to his support for Donald Trump), but in space. SpaceX, the company of the American billionaire who also owns the car company Tesla and launched the social network from Boca Chica (Texas), instead of losing it at sea as during the four previous launches; and successfully land the spaceship.

Read also | A SpaceX mission to rescue two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station began Saturday

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It was the fifth test launch, since April 2023, of the most powerful launcher in the world, 120 meters high and capable of carrying 100 tonnes (ten times more than current rockets). Those who made fun of the recoverable launcher project at the beginning of the Falcon-9 adventure have had to admit that SpaceX has changed the economic model of the space industry. Bringing back the first stage of the rockets allows it to be reused, increases the number of launches and significantly reduces costs.

With this new “big leap”, SpaceX further widens the gap with Europe and China, but also with its American competitors Blue Origin, from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, in the strategic sector of space exploration and the positioning in orbit of satellite constellations for civil or military use. To fill at least part of it, Europe will have to move “high fashion” al“industrialization”warned Eva Berneke, general director of the French satellite operator Eutelsat The worldon July 3, on the occasion of the successful launch of Ariane-6: “Falcon-9 had already reduced prices by 50%, Starship will reduce them even more, at least by 30% to 40%. »

“A big step towards multiplanetary life”

The economic equation isn’t everything, even for the richest man in the world. There is an element of messianic dreaming in his approach. “Today a big step has been taken towards multiplanetary life”Mr Musk launched on Sunday. SpaceX is preparing ships that will shuttle between Earth and the Moon to build a viable base and transport its future inhabitants. And even an unparalleled arrogance. Go to Mars! Not to send a few astronauts by 2050, as several space agencies plan, but to implant millions of human beings fleeing from our planet, which has become unlivable, and “prolong human life”. Nothing less.