A copy of SpaceX’s Starship rocket on April 16, 2023 in Texas, before its first takeoff (AFP/Patrick T. Fallon)
Will it explode or not? SpaceX must once again launch the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, Starship, on Saturday after a first launch which ended in a gigantic explosion in the spring.
This second test flight by SpaceX, the company of billionaire Elon Musk, will be closely scrutinized by NASA, which is counting on this vessel for its return missions to the Moon.
The giant 120-meter-high rocket is due to lift off the ground on Saturday at 7:00 a.m. local time (1:00 p.m. GMT), with a 20-minute firing window, from the SpaceX base in Boca Chica, in the far south of Texas, in the UNITED STATES.
Photographers install remotely controlled cameras at the Starship takeoff site on November 17, 2023 in Boca Chica (United States) (AFP/TIMOTHY A. CLARY)
On April 20, Starship took off for the first time in its full configuration. But several engines did not work, and SpaceX intentionally blew up the rocket after four minutes.
The takeoff had propelled a cloud of dust several kilometers from the launch pad, itself heavily damaged. Chunks of concrete were catapulted under the power of the engines, and a fire broke out in a nearby regional park.
The American air regulator (FAA) opened an investigation, before finally giving the green light on Wednesday for a second flight.
– “Environmental damage” –
Over seven months, the launch pad was rebuilt, and a water “deluge” system was installed and tested. These downpours of water discharged when the engines are started must attenuate the acoustic waves, limiting vibrations.
However, associations are separately suing the FAA, accused of having incorrectly assessed the environmental impact of the new rocket. “We fear that this second launch will once again create significant environmental damage,” Jared Margolis, lawyer for the NGO Center for Biological Diversity, told AFP.
In this photo released by Maxar Technologies, SpaceX’s Starship rocket stands on its launch pad, November 17, 2023 in Boca Chica (United States) (Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies/AFP/-)
The rocket is made up of two stages: the Super Heavy propulsion stage and its 33 engines, and the Starship spacecraft, placed above and which by extension gives its name to the entire rocket.
During the first test, these two stages failed to separate in flight.
The separation system was therefore changed, Elon Musk said during a conference in early October, adding that testing this system would be “the riskiest part” of the second flight.
“I don’t want to raise too high hopes,” warned the boss of SpaceX.
The flight plan is the same as in April: the vessel must attempt to make an “almost complete tour of the Earth” and land in the Pacific, off the coast of Hawaii, described the billionaire. It will not technically reach Earth’s orbit, but will be “just below”.
For the company, the explosion of prototypes is less problematic in terms of image than it would be for NASA and its public funds, according to experts. Chaining together tests using a rapid iteration process allows it to accelerate the development of its machines.
– “Absurd size” –
But the development of Starship does not seem to be fast enough to match the plans of the American space agency, which has signed a contract with SpaceX. A modified version of the machine must serve as a lunar lander to place astronauts on the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.
This mission, named Artemis 3, is officially planned for 2025 – a date which seems increasingly unrealistic.
A person wearing a SpaceX company T-shirt looks at the Starship rocket on its launch pad, November 16, 2023 in Boba Chica (United States) (AFP/TIMOTHY A. CLARY)
Beyond the Moon, Elon Musk wants to make Starship “a widespread means of transportation to any destination in the solar system”, including Mars.
Its goal is the establishment of an autonomous colony on the red planet, in order to make humanity a multiplanetary species.
If the size of Starship is “absurd”, he explains, it is because building a “permanent base on the Moon and a city on Mars” requires carrying millions of tons of payload.
But the real innovation of Starship is that it must be entirely reusable, with the two stages being designed to eventually return to their launch pad — thus reducing costs. Only the first stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is currently recovered.
Starship is both larger than NASA’s new mega-rocket, SLS (98 m), which took off for the first time a year ago, and the legendary Saturn V, the rocket for the lunar program Apollo (111 m).
Starship’s liftoff thrust is also about twice as powerful as these two launch vehicles.
© 2023 AFP
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