Four months to the day after the first takeoff of the huge SpaceX launcher, the company is preparing its new attempt. The launch site has been repaired and improved, while the SuperHeavy booster and its Starship are preparing for their final tests. To, this time, reach space?
It will also be necessary to obtain the green light from the American authorities.
It’s new, and it’s very big
It is a gigantism that recalls the scale of the SuperHeavy, the first stage of SpaceX’s superheavy launcher. The company shared installation photos of its latest addition, an open interstory structure, on August 18. The latter should allow the Starship, after several minutes of flight, to separate from its “hot” stage by igniting its engines before the 33 Raptor engines on the first stage have finished their action and the separation takes place. This sequence will be complex, but if it succeeds perfectly, it can save some performance to send the huge and heavy Starship vehicle into orbit.
A clone of this interstage, now part of SuperHeavy B9, was pressure tested on a test bed not far from Starbase in Texas. After checking its engines, the B9 should therefore return to the launch site in the coming days, where SpaceX teams will assemble it with the Starship SN25.
A final sequence of tests will then follow, with at least a fictitious countdown and refueling before the next shot attempt. The latter will aim for a near-orbit, with a speed that will be enough for Starship to return to the atmosphere to try to simulate a landing sequence above the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Hawaii.
Objective: better than last time
Four months after the first test, the SpaceX teams have therefore responded to the enormous challenges raised by this attempt to take off from Starship. On April 20, the SuperHeavy-Starship duo (B7 and SN24) took off well despite several engine failures during its climb. It had reached an altitude of 40 kilometers before being destroyed, its trajectory being out of control. This failure had nevertheless taken the form of a victory for the teams of the company and its boss, with several encouraging elements despite engine problems and major technical pitfalls.
The Starship had not separated from its first stage, and, more boring for this test, the launch site had suffered impressive damage. To the point of generating a real outcry from several environmental protection associations and pointing the finger at the authorities who had authorized the shooting. Will the latter deliver the sesame to SpaceX for a second flight without claiming new guarantees? Perhaps the improvements to the firing table (armored and reinforced, the latter now overlooks an imposing metal plate system cooled by what can be compared to a deluge) will be enough to get a new green light?
No official date yet
Anyway, from an administrative point of view, the Starbase seems to be actively preparing for a new attempt, and observers expect to have a date soon to go to Boca Chica or the surrounding area to follow the flight of the most impressive and powerful rocket in service. A maritime exclusion zone corresponding to one shot has been issued for August 31, but most observers believe that is too early.
SpaceX is under pressure to make rapid progress on this particular project. Indeed, NASA expects Starship to serve as a lunar lander for the Artemis project in 2025. First, it will take off, and take off again. The Texas site is preparing for this, also with improvements on the production side and new expansions of this veritable “Starship factory”.
Source : Wccftech
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