SpaceX today carried out the second test launch of the giant Starship rocket – this time more successful than the first. The launch of the 122-meter rocket, the most powerful ever created by mankind, took place at 16:05 Moscow time from the SpaceX Starbase site in Boca Chica, Texas.. A few minutes after launch, the lower stage successfully separated from the Starship, which continued its journey into orbit.. About 9 minutes after the start, contact with him was lost.
Image source: John Kraus
Unlike the first test launch, during which the rocket suffered a “quick, unplanned disassembly,” the new Starship reached an altitude of 148 km at the time of the loss of communication. That is, the ship ended up in space, the boundary of which lies at an altitude of 100 km. A near-orbital speed of 24 thousand has been achieved. km/h. Despite the loss of communication, the launch can be considered successful. SpaceX later reported that after communication was lost, the flight control center sent a command to the device to self-destruct.
Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/qXnGXXZP5k
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 18, 2023
During the first launch, a problem arose with the separation of the lower and upper stages. Now, due to the “hot scheme” for separating the stages, everything went more successfully. The moment of separation is shown in the video after this paragraph. The Starship started its engines even before it was disconnected from the Super Heavy accelerator. The lower stage separated less than three minutes after launch and began falling into the Gulf of Mexico, but exploded in mid-air during its descent.. It is also worth adding that this time all 33 Raptor engines on the first stage of the rocket fired. During the first test run, some of the engines did not fire.
Stage separation! pic.twitter.com/PipaCW1PDT
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 18, 2023
Starship consists of a huge booster (first stage) called Super Heavy, as well as a spacecraft (upper stage) known as Starship. The current test flight used the 25th prototype spacecraft and the ninth booster. SpaceX has already launched Starships before, but not higher than 10 km. Many of the launches ended in explosions, but already in the 15th attempt they managed to avoid destroying the ship. Super Heavy boosters were mostly tested on the ground by burning out the engines – the last time all 33 Raptor engines were tested, two of them failed to fire.
Image source: Max Evans
During the first launch, the rocket damaged the launch pad, concrete fragments of which, in turn, scattered over a vast area and led to damage to the equipment of the cosmodrome and some private property in a nearby village. The scale of the destruction forced the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to put forward dozens of demands to the company, without which a license to relaunch could not have been issued under any circumstances.. Also, approval from environmental authorities was required to obtain a license.. The company complied with all recommendations.
Both Super Heavy and Starship are designed to be fully reusable, but for the current first stage and ship, today's flight was planned as the only one. Both parts of the rocket were supposed to splashdown in the ocean, rather than vertically land on land or an offshore platform, as the first stages of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets typically do.
We add that Starship is a critical component for the future of SpaceX. This rocket and ship are planned to be used for a variety of missions, from launching a new generation of Starlink Internet satellites into orbit, to returning people to the Moon, and in the future, delivering astronauts to Mars. Starship will be able to launch up to 150 tons of cargo into low-Earth orbit in reusable mode and up to 250 tons in disposable mode – Falcon 9 currently launches up to 17.4 tons. Also, the new huge rocket will be able to deliver up to 150 tons of cargo to the Moon and Mars.
NASA has big plans for Starship as part of the Artemis lunar program: huge ships will be used to transport crews from low Earth orbit to the Gateway lunar orbital station and between the station and the lunar surface. SpaceX will develop the HLS Starship lander, which will safely carry two American astronauts to the lunar surface and then return them to lunar orbit a week later.