The company SpaceX today launched the Starship, the ship with which Elon Musk plans to take up to 100 people to the moon and Mars. The launch took place after 3:30 pm local time on the Peninsula today from the Company’s base near the Texas city of Brownsville, United States. The Super Heavy rocket, the most powerful in history, exploded shortly after launch. The company SpaceX considered it a success because the device moved far enough from the launch platform without causing any damage.
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Today’s launch follows a failed attempt on Monday when a faulty valve prevented launch. There was much suspense today as well, as those responsible for launch stopped the countdown 40 seconds after ignition to carry out checks on the propellant pressurization and the second stage of the rocket.
The spacecraft was blown up before separating from the Super Heavy rocket. The company has called it an “unplanned separation”; and counted it as a success. “In a test like this, success is based on everything we can learn, and today’s launch will improve Starship’s reliability as we pursue the goal of bringing life to other planets,” the company said on Twitter. Musk himself has congratulated the entire team and said they have “learned a lot” in anticipation of the next launch, which will take place “in a few months”.
Today’s explosion represents a significant economic loss for the US company, which has not provided exact figures on how much the rocket launched today cost. In 2019, Musk told CNN that Starship’s development cost is approximately $3,000 million. [2.700 millones de euros]. His idea is that when it is already mass-produced and its viability is proven, the final cost will be reduced to around $10 million (nine million euros), especially since these devices will be reusable. For comparison, each ride on NASA’s most powerful SLS rocket costs about $4 billion.
Starship is a fundamental part of the new space race to the moon led by the United States. The reusable ship is theoretically expected to bring the first astronauts to the lunar surface in more than 50 years: a woman and a non-white person, according to plans from the US space agency, which has a $1 million contract with the Musk company to use Starship . Today’s verdict may result in the chosen date of 2025 being postponed.
This was the Super Heavy’s first flight coupled to the spacecraft, though SpaceX has fired 31 of its 33 Raptor engines operating simultaneously.
Moment of the explosion of the Super Heavy rocket.SPACEX (Portal)
The reusable Super Heavy rocket, a monster the size of a 40-story building, was supposed to propel the spacecraft for eight minutes. The vehicle on the rocket would reach an altitude of about 150 miles and fly for 90 minutes. The aircraft was designed to land vertically and be reusable, but today’s test focused only on takeoff and flight without a crew or satellites. The interplanetary vehicle was scheduled to crash into the Pacific Ocean about 100 kilometers north of the island of Kauai, Hawaii (USA).
Elon Musk lowered expectations in a talk for Twitter users on Sunday. There are “a million reasons” why the test could go wrong, he assured, warning that if they see any risks, they will abandon the trial. “There is a good chance it will be postponed as we will be very careful with this release. If it goes wrong, a lot of things can go wrong,” he warned.
One of the obsessions of the tycoon and the rest of the company’s 11,000 employees is making sure the missile launches successfully, getting as far as possible from the massive 146-meter launch pad, which also serves to fish the missile once again. They are really successful at that today.
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