The SpaceX rocket, owned by Elon Musk, had its first test Thursday from the Starbase space base in Texas. It is the largest rocket ever built.
The reason behind [l’explosion]it is obvious that we saw the rocket falling in the images and therefore lost control of it to prevent it from landing over inhabited areas and causing damage, specifies the scientific communicator , in the Téléjournal Estrie.
Guillaume Poulin claims that this type of test allows SpaceX to collect data to then perfect the rocket.
The science communicator of the Mont-Mégantic Park ASTROlab, Guillaume Poulin.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Screenshot Téléjournal Estrie
He adds that if the rocket hadn’t exploded, the nose of the rocket would have fallen off and made a full orbit around the Earth.
And there we could have tested another important step for this ship, which is to return to the atmosphere and withstand the high temperatures caused by friction with the air, Mr Poulin estimates.
Go to the moon, then to Mars
The ultimate goal of this rocket is to send people to both Mars and the moon, the scientist recalls.
“Basically, it’s an extremely, extremely ambitious program because not only do we want to build the most powerful rocket and put hundreds of tons of material into orbit around the Earth every time, we also want to build a vehicle that is 100% reusable, and that has never existed. »
— A quote from Guillaume Poulin, Science Communicator at ASTROlab in Mont-Mégantic Park
According to him, NASA is watching what is happening with SpaceX. The science communicator points out that NASA and SpaceX are both involved in the Artemis 3 mission to find ways for astronauts to eventually return to the lunar surface.