Posted on Dec 10, 2019 2020 at 10:59
He crashed into a large ball of fire. A prototype of the future giant Starship rocket took off on an altitude test flight from the Texas coast on Wednesday, but landing in a near-deserted area in Boca Chica (far south Texas) did failed. The purpose of this flight was to test in particular the return to Earth vertically of this reusable spacecraft from SpaceX, which seeks to develop at high speed the next generation of rockets.
This explosion did not discourage the founder of the company. “Mars, here we are,” wrote Elon Musk on Twitter, explaining that the speed of arrival at landing was too great. He praised the successful stages: the ascent, the change of altitude position, and the precision of the trajectory to the landing point. “We have all the data we need! Congratulations to the SpaceX team yeah! “, He congratulated himself again.
Construction of the next prototype almost complete
SpaceX is not its first explosion. Smaller prototypes have already flown a few hundred meters above sea level for less than a minute, and some have suffered the same fate as this latest prototype, dubbed “SN8” (Starship Serial Number 8). This test was to assess the aerodynamic behavior, the return to Earth and vertical landing – the specialty of SpaceX – with its current rocket, the Falcon 9, leader of the world market for launching private satellites.
“With such tests, we do not measure success by the number of specific objectives fulfilled but rather by what we learn,” the company had written preventively on its site. An explosion or a crash is always a risk for SpaceX, but it is part of the industrial adventure.
The construction of the next prototype, SN9, is also almost completed. The future rocket will consist of the manned spaceship and a first stage called Super Heavy, equipped with 37 engines instead of 9, all measuring 120 meters in height and capable of carrying 100 tons in orbit around the Earth.
Elon Musk imagines one day launching several of these ships to conquer Mars. The rocket, if it became operational, could, before that, prove useful for trips closer, in particular to the Moon, where NASA wants to restore a lasting presence from 2024. Starship is also the vehicle with which the billionaire Japanese Yusaku Maezawa is supposed to go around the moon, in theory in 2023, a trip at the price remained confidential.
Source AFP
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