The most powerful rocket ever, Starship, developed by SpaceX for trips to the Moon and Mars, remains grounded as the company makes dozens of modifications required by American regulators on Friday, more than four months after it exploded in flight.
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63 changes, including the creation of new parts “to prevent leaks and fires”, the correction of elements of the launch pad and the conduct of further tests, were necessary, the American aviation regulator FAA said.
On April 20, SpaceX teams intentionally exploded the rocket in the sky over Texas four minutes after a failed launch. The launch vehicle had not separated and several engines had failed. The fireball caused a cloud of dust to fall on a city miles away.
Boss Elon Musk still congratulated his teams and hoped that we could learn a lot from this failure.
But the regulator quickly launched an investigation, which in turn was targeted by associations that accused it of not doing enough to protect the environment.
If the FAA investigation is now complete, the resumption of flights at Boca Chica, the SpaceX base in Texas, is not imminent, the American air police officer indicated.
“SpaceX must implement all corrective actions that impact safety” and apply for modification approval “prior to each new Starship launch,” the FAA notes.
According to images from SpaceX, another Starship rocket is currently on a launch pad and ready to launch.
The company said the first test was “an essential step in advancing the performance of the most powerful launch system ever built” and had “learned many lessons that directly contributed to ongoing changes” to the rocket and ground structures.
The 120 meter high spacecraft is larger than both NASA’s new mega rocket SLS (98 m) and the legendary Saturn V, the rocket of the Apollo moon program (111 m).
For Elon Musk’s company, Starship must make it possible to fly to Mars in the future with a fully reusable machine. NASA has selected the Starship spacecraft (second stage of the rocket) as the lander for the Artemis-3 mission, which will soon bring astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in more than half a century.