SpaceX’s Starship rocket completed the new maiden voyage on its fifth test flight.
The SpaceX team was able to guide the elevated portion of the rocket back to the launch pad, where it was attached to a pair of large mechanical arms in a way that had never been done before. This brings SpaceX a big step closer to its goals of developing a fully reusable and rapidly deployable rocket.
SpaceX engineers as the rocket lands safely “A day that will go down in the history books” They reported.
The chances that the promotion would be so clean on the first try seemed remote, said the BBC. Before the launch, the SpaceX team said that it would not be surprising if the booster was directed to land in the Gulf of Mexico.
After the vehicle broke apart shortly after its launch on its first flights, SpaceX can now celebrate incredible achievements in its last two test flights.
SpaceX also argues that the failures are part of its development plan to launch early in anticipation of failure so it can collect as much data and improve its systems faster than competitors.
The early levels of increase in the fifth test were identical to those of the previous four tests; The ship and the riser separated two and three-quarter minutes after leaving the ground. At this point the boom began going back to the launch site in Boca Chica, Texas.
Just two minutes before they landed, while the team working on the tower was doing final checks, it was still not clear whether the attempt would be made or not.
When the flight director decided to proceed, there was applause from SpaceX employees watching the test. The company said that thousands of criteria had to be met for the trial to take place, so this was a success in itself.
As the Super Heavy rocket entered the atmosphere, 33 raptor engines worked to slow it down from speeds of over a thousand miles per hour. He seemed to almost float in the air as he approached the 146m high drop tower, orange flames circling the riser and settling on the large mechanical arms.
The ship portion of the rocket, where the equipment and crew would be carried, fired its own engines after separating from the booster and was sent across the Indian Ocean to land at sea.
Capturing the boom instead of lowering it on the launch pad would reduce the need for complex hardware on the ground and allow the vehicle to be quickly repositioned in time to coming
He paid NASA $2.8 billion to turn Starship into a lander that could send astronauts back to the surface of the moon by 2026.
In terms of space, this is not a far-off date, so Elon Musk’s team wanted to launch the rocket again as soon as possible. However, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which authorizes flights, said there would be no launch before November while it reviewed the company’s licenses.
TENSION BETWEEN FAA AND SPACEX
The FAA and Elon Musk have been feuding publicly since last month, after the FAA announced it wanted to fine SpaceX $633,000 for allegedly failing to meet the terms of the license and not they have received permission for previous flights. The FAA studies the impact of flying, especially its impact on the environment, before a license is issued.
Musk threatened to sue the FAA in response to the fine, and SpaceX said part of the rocket had polluted the environment. “fake news” a public notice would be published against him.
2024-10-13 14:17:00
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