What’s next for SpaceX after Starship Explosion: Musk wants to launch $3 billion Mars rocket in 2 months
What’s next for SpaceX after Starship Explosion: Musk wants to launch $3 billion Mars rocket in 2 months
It had taken a decade in the making, but the world’s most powerful rocket, SpaceX’s Starship rocket went from its historic liftoff to a stunning ball of flames in less than four minutes.
Elon Musk’s $3 billion Starship, designed to transport humanity to Mars someday, detonated high over the Gulf of Mexico as the world watched. While many expected the massive new rocket’s first flight to be a failure, Musk, SpaceX, and even NASA all praised it as ‘exciting’ and a success.
But how feasible is this aim, what happens after a successful orbital flight test, and when will people finally take a flight in SpaceX’s Starship?
The launch where the Starship blew up
Musk had set low expectations in the run-up to the launch, acknowledging that there was a 50% chance Starship might explode. Later, he added, “Anything that does not result in the destruction of the launchpad itself is a win.”
The launch of Starship was originally slated for Monday last week, but it was cancelled after engineers discovered a frozen valve, forcing the much-anticipated blast-off to be rescheduled for last Thursday.
The world’s most powerful rocket ever created then successfully burst skywards from its launchpad in south Texas just after 08:33 local time or 1433 BST. However, as it soared higher and higher, observers saw that six of the 33 engines at the vehicle’s base had been turned off or flamed out.
The rocket began spinning out of control after two to three minutes, and it was purposefully destroyed by SpaceX using onboard charges less than four minutes later. Most people would consider not reaching orbit and exploding during liftoff a failure, but not Musk, SpaceX, NASA, or other spaceflight specialists.
‘With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s test will help us enhance Starship’s reliability as SpaceX attempts to make life multi-planetary,’ according to SpaceX.
‘We cleared the tower, which was our only chance,’ said SpaceX quality systems engineer Kate Tice.
Musk’s ambitious plan
A swarm of SpaceX employees celebrated enthusiastically when the rocket passed the launch tower and again when it exploded up in the sky while watching a livestream at the company’s headquarters in Los Angeles.
Aside from the launch, the test mission fell short of several other goals, including deploying the Starship vessel into space and reentering Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speeds 60 miles off the coast of Hawaii, where it would have faced key aerodynamic forces and blazing heat before plunging into the Pacific.
Still, getting the newly integrated Starship and booster rocket off the ground for the first flight was a significant step forward in SpaceX’s goal of returning men to the moon and eventually Mars.
Bill Nelson, head of the US Space Agency, was particularly effusive in his appreciation, noting that ‘every great achievement throughout history has involved some element of measured risk, because with great risk comes tremendous reward.’
With the launchpad calamity avoided, Musk was confident about the timescale for Starship to launch again, promising to do so in one to two months after SpaceX engineers reviewed all of the data from the last attempt.
The maverick entrepreneur is notoriously optimistic when it comes to goal setting, so take this with a grain of salt. SpaceX, on the other hand, has several Starship spacecraft in production at its Starbase facility in Texas, with plans to launch them as soon as they are ready.
The damage to the launchpad
Many experts have warned that not only is the anticipated launch in a few months doubtful, but Starship may really lift off for at least another year. They attributed this to the fact that, while the rocket did not blow the launchpad to smithereens, it did sustain considerable damage that would need costly repairs.
SpaceX has yet to share post-launch photographs of the Boca Chica pad, but many have leaked that illustrate the damage done by the Starship’s 33 Raptor engines. The launch last Thursday “left a large crater in the concrete under the launch mount,” Spaceflight Now reported in a tweet that featured multiple photographs of the debris-strewn pad, adding that the orbital mount was “heavily damaged.”
Also read: Explained: The damage that SpaceX’s Starship rocket caused at Texas launch site
Max Evans, a NASASpaceflight.com photographer, also recorded some of the damage. ‘It’s difficult to envision this site being functional again in less than a year — would be pleased to be proven wrong,’ Evans said in a tweet.
Engineer and space entrepreneur Jonathan Goff was a little more bullish about how long the repairs will take.
‘With the pad damage and the necessity to rebuild the launch infrastructure, I believe we’re at least 7-9 months away from our next SS/SH (Starship and Super Heavy) flight of any type. ‘One year to achieve complete orbit and the successful flight was overly ambitious,’ Goff commented on social media.
However, according to Eric Berger, senior space editor at scientific website Ars Technica, Musk’s aim to launch again within two months is not that far-fetched given SpaceX’s past.
An orbital flight test needs to be successful
The first orbital flight test occurred nearly four years after Starship was initially revealed.
The plan was for the Super Heavy rocket to detach from the Starship after launch and crash land in the Gulf of Mexico. If separation happened, Starship, which has six engines of its own, was to proceed to an altitude of almost 150 miles before crashing down in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii approximately 90 minutes after launch, completing a near-circle of the Earth.
Between 2020 and 2021, SpaceX conducted five brief test flights of only the upper-stage spaceship. The fifth attempt was the first to succeed after the previous four failed due to explosions or crashes.
Musk’s business performed a ‘static fire’ test of its Super Heavy rocket in February, firing 31 of its 33 engines while mounted to a platform. Based on prior failures, there may be a few more failed attempts before the full Starship spaceship and launch mechanism performs its first orbital voyage.
However, once that happens, a series of follow-up tests will be required as SpaceX increases its dependability and makes the world’s most powerful rocket safe for humans to fly on. Of course, it would not be cheap: Musk has predicted that the overall development cost of the Starship project would range between $2 and $10 billion. Later, he corrected this to “closer to two or three [billion] than it is to ten.”
Starship’s first manned flight
People will be permitted to ride on the rocket only when SpaceX engineers and the FAA are sure that it is safe. If the remainder of the test campaign goes well, people may be able to board Starship for the first time in a few years.
The first voyage is already planned and will be led by rich US businessman Jared Isaacman, who has already travelled to space in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. The first trip around the moon, led by Japanese retail fashion entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa, will follow. As part of his DearMoon initiative, he will bring eight artists with him.
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