After years of anticipation, Starship, the massive 395-foot launch vehicle built by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, could finally make its first orbital flight.
Stunning new aerial images show Starship stacked on its orbital launch pad, waiting to lift off at the company’s Texas facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
Musk has previously said that Starship’s first launch into orbit will be “soon,” possibly within the next two months.
Such a launch will be an early milestone in its quest to use Starship to ferry people and cargo to the Moon and Mars.
SpaceX’s new aerial images of Starship, fully stacked on the orbiting launch pad, suggest the launch may finally happen
SpaceX plans to launch humans into space with a two-stage spacecraft consisting of Starship (the passenger transport section) and the Super Heavy rocket booster
SpaceX spacecraft stats
First launch: February 2023?
What is it used for? Part of the landers for NASA’s moon missions, but also to transport people to Mars.
Altitude: 120 m
Weight: 11 million pounds (5 million kg)
Thrust: 16 million pounds (70 meganewtons)
Is it reusable? Yes
Maximum Payload into Low Earth Orbit: 220,000-330,000 pounds (100-150 tons)
Maximum payload into lunar orbit: 220,000 pounds (100 tons)
Solid fuel: N/A
Liquid fuel: oxygen and methane
Engines: Powered by approximately 32 Raptor engines
Crew Module: Spaceship (ultimately capable of carrying up to 100 passengers)
Construction cost: US$216 million (£189 million)
Price per launch: Eventually around $2 million ($1.7 million), according to Musk
Where will it start from? Probably the starbase near Boca Chica, Texas. But possibly Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center.
Total launches: 0
SpaceX plans to launch humans into space with a two-stage spacecraft consisting of Starship (the passenger transport section) and the Super Heavy rocket booster.
Together, Starship and Super Heavy measure a whopping 394 feet (120 meters) tall and weigh 11 million pounds (5 million kg).
Starship can generate 16 million pounds (70 meganewtons) of thrust, making it one of the most powerful rockets in the world.
The company has tested prototypes of the $216 million (£189 million) spacecraft, formerly known as the ‘BFR’, by launching them into the air and landing them.
These launches met with varying degrees of success, with some exploding in a chaotic ball of flame and others returning unharmed.
A full orbital test flight of the rocket is yet to come, though Musk said a year ago that it would likely happen in 2022.
Now, Musk says a launch attempt could happen in the next few months, likely in February or March.
On January 8, he tweeted: “We have a real chance at the end of February. A launch attempt in March seems very likely.’
Musk recently posted a photo of Starship to his Twitter account with the simple caption: “Starship launch attempt soon.”
Elon Musk had said in September that his ultra-superheavy rocket could finally launch into space the following month, although that didn’t materialize.
SpaceX originally planned to launch Starship into orbit in January 2022, but had to delay it after an environmental review of the Boca Chica site.
It’s worth noting that Musk was confident that Starship would successfully reach orbit sometime in 2022, so SpaceX fans have learned to take his predictions with a pinch of salt.
Once a successful orbital flight is in the bag, SpaceX will focus on delivering valuable satellites and other payloads into Starship’s orbit.
SpaceX isn’t just planning a spacecraft; Musk has also previously said that his company built a “factory to make a lot of these vehicles.”
A full orbital test flight of the rocket is yet to come, though Musk said a year ago that it would likely happen in 2022
The company has tested prototypes of the $216 million spacecraft, formerly known as the “BFR,” by launching them into the air and landing them. These launches met with varying degrees of success, with some exploding in a chaotic ball of flame and others returning unharmed
Musk posted a photo of Starship on his Twitter account with the caption: “Starship launch attempt soon.”
Elon Musk (pictured) has previously made predictions about when the launch will happen – but these have been proven wrong
Ultimately, Musk wants to make human life “multiplanetary” — life on multiple planets — which could require a thousand or so spacecraft.
Musk believes that a natural or man-made disaster will eventually bring about the end of civilization and require resettlement to another planet – Mars “is the only realistic option.”
This could be a pandemic worse than Covid-19, steadily declining birth rates, a nuclear Armageddon, or perhaps a direct hit by a killer comet “wiping out a continent.”
NASA commissioned SpaceX to use Starship to ferry astronauts to the lunar surface as early as 2025 as part of the Artemis program (the successor to the Apollo program in the 1960s and 1970s).
A Starship orbital launch will be an early milestone in its quest to use the vehicle to carry people and cargo to the Moon and Mars
Musk believes that a natural or man-made catastrophe will eventually bring about the end of civilization and require a move to another planet – Mars is “the only realistic option”.
The Artemis missions aim to return humans to the moon “no earlier than 2025.”
Artemis 1, the first Artemis mission that took an unmanned rocket around the moon and back to Earth, was successfully completed in December.
Artemis 1 will be followed by a human journey around the moon in Orion in 2024 (Artemis 2) and in 2025 the first woman and first colored person will land on the moon (Artemis 3).
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Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo and moon goddess in Greek mythology.
NASA chose her to embody their path back to the moon, which will see astronauts return to the lunar surface by 2025 – including the first woman and the next man.
Artemis 1, formerly Exploration Mission-1, is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration of the Moon and Mars.
Artemis 1 will be the first integrated flight test of NASA’s space exploration system: the Orion spacecraft, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the ground systems at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Artemis 1 will be an unmanned flight that will provide a basis for human exploration of space and demonstrate our commitment and ability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond.
During this flight, the spacecraft will launch the world’s most powerful rocket and fly further than any human-made spacecraft has ever flown.
It will travel 280,000 miles (450,600 km) from Earth, thousands of miles beyond the moon, over the course of a roughly three-week mission.
Artemis 1, formerly Exploration Mission-1, is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration of the Moon and Mars. This graphic explains the different phases of the mission
Orion will stay in space longer than any astronaut spacecraft without docking with a space station, and return home faster and hotter than ever.
With this first reconnaissance mission, NASA is taking the next steps in human exploration into space, where astronauts will build and begin testing near-lunar systems necessary for missions to the lunar surface and exploration of other, more distant targets, including of Mars, are needed.
This will put the crew on a different trajectory and test Orion’s critical systems with humans on board.
Together, Orion, SLS and Kennedy’s ground systems will be able to meet the most demanding requirements for crew and cargo missions in space.
Finally, as a result of the Artemis mission, NASA wants to establish a sustainable human presence on the moon by 2028.
The space agency hopes this colony will uncover new scientific discoveries, demonstrate new technological advances, and lay the groundwork for private companies to build a lunar economy.