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The giant 400-foot SpaceX space rocket will fly 47,000 feet in the air later this week according to Elon Musk, but there’s a one in three chance it will land with a crash.
The massive, double-decker in orbit heavy transport vehicle has been in development since 2012 and could take the average launch cost from $ 51 million to just $ 2 million.
In what is the most recent and ambitious test of the rocket to date, it will fly up to nine miles in the air – higher than the cruising height of most planes – then descend again to land safely. security at the SpaceX Boca Chica development site. in Texas.
However, Elon Musk tweeted that “ a lot has to go right ” for him to get back to solid ground, giving the landing a one in three chance of going as planned.
SpaceX is hoping to use Starship to take passengers to the Moon and Mars – Musk suggesting that the first unmanned flight to Mars could take place in just two years.
No specific date or time has been set for the test flight, which follows a series of “static fire tests,” but it is expected to be before the end of this week.
Musk says the rocket’s first “ high altitude test ” will see it fly nine miles above the Boca Chica facility in Texas, then descend directly for a landing.
The Huge Double Decker Orbiting Starship Heavy Transport Vehicle has been in development since 2012 and is designed to reduce the cost of launch by being reusable (artist print)
SpaceX is one step closer to launching its Starship SN8 prototype nine miles above ground after a series of successful static fire tests at its Texas facility
To develop a spacecraft that can potentially reach the Moon or Mars directly from Earth requires extensive testing, including landing on Earth from a height.
If this latest flight test – which will see the Raptor triple engine fire and lift the spacecraft 400 feet into the air – is successful, more extensive testing will likely follow.
In an interview with German publishing house Axel Springer on Tuesday, the founder and CEO of SpaceX said he has an ambitious schedule for future missions.
Musk said he hoped to see Starship land on the Red Planet within the next two years and that the first humans would march on Mars after traveling on Starship by 2026 – a slight deviation from his original goal of 2024.
The last high altitude test is scheduled at some point between Wednesday and the end of the week, but times and dates for testing may change in the short term.
Nine miles in height isn’t enough to get him into space – but since all previous “jumps” have been measured in feet rather than miles – that’s a significant step forward.
The edge of space is agreed by NASA and others to be 50 miles above sea level, but to enter orbit you must travel at least 100 miles above sea level. the sea.
Last week, Musk tweeted, “ Good static Starship SN8 fire! Aim for the first 15km / ~ 50km altitude flight next week. The objectives are to test 3 climbs of the engine, the body flaps, the transition from the main tanks to the head tanks and the landing flip.
Landing is one of the most important aspects – because it needs to be fully reusable to meet the goals and price per flight set by the SpaceX team.
There are a number of potential uses for Starship – including deploying hundreds of satellites into orbit at a time and landing astronauts on the Moon and Mars.
Musk said he was “ pretty confident ” of a timeline that could see Starship arrive on Mars unmanned in 2022 and with humans as early as 2026.
He said this was in part due to an ambitious parallel development program for Starship that involves multiple generations of prototypes developed at the same time for rapid testing.
If this latest flight test – which will see the Raptor’s triple engine fire and lift the spacecraft 400 feet into the air – is successful, then higher tests will likely follow.
However, for SpaceX to go from a test flight nine miles high – assuming it lands successfully – to nearly 40 million miles to Mars, it may take time.
Starship’s latest prototype, dubbed SN8, is due to perform a static fire test at SpaceX’s Boca Chica development facility in Texas before the altitude test flight.
When operational, it is hoped that a single Starship launch will cost around $ 2 million per trip – a Falcon 9 launch currently costs $ 51 million if the components are reused.
Starship is made up of two sections: the Super Heavy thruster and the rocket that can carry up to 100 people at a time to Mars.
It sits at nearly 400 feet and “ a lot can go wrong ” landing such a big piece of gear on solid ground – however, previous “ short jumps ” have been successful.
SpaceX’s spacecraft has a “ combat chance ” to launch its first unmanned mission to Mars in just four years, said founder and CEO Elon Musk. In the photo, a prototype of a spaceship
There are also other prototypes of the Starship ship ready for testing if this flight fails, according to reports.
SN8 is the first prototype to feature a nose and nose fins that aid in high altitude testing. The previous “short jumps” were carried out using the SN6 prototype.
This spaceship just had a “ mass simulator ” on top that weighed as much as a nose.
Musk says he has SN9 and SN10 out of the box because they were developed in parallel with SN8 and quickly follow a theme of “building successive generations of prototypes” so they can test and iterate quickly.
Elon Musk says he hopes to make an orbit trip himself at some point in the next two to three years and that he will one day be buried on Mars.
WHAT IS ELON MUSK’S ‘WCR’?
The BFR (Big F *** ing Rocket), now known as the Starship, will fulfill all missions and is smaller than those announced by Musk in 2016.
SpaceX CEO said the rocket will make its first trip to the Red Planet in 2022, carrying only cargo, followed by a manned mission in 2024 and claimed other SpaceX products will be ‘cannibalized’ to pay it.
The rocket would be partially reusable and able to fly directly from Earth to Mars.
Once built, Musk believes the rocket could be used to travel to Earth – claiming passengers could get anywhere in less than an hour.
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