close
close

Guiltandivy

Source for News

    • From exploding rockets to historic landings
    Update Information

    From exploding rockets to historic landings

    Kathleen William Posted on

    The spacecraft, a 400-person behemouth consisting of a rocket and a vehicle, was demonstrated unmanned for the fifth time Sunday morning from a launch site near Brownsville, Texas.

    play

    • This time, SpaceX not only brought the 232-foot-long rocket booster back to the launch site, but also snatched it out of the air with two giant mechanical arms.
    • Engineering teams have achieved the historic feat for the world's largest and most powerful rocket, while also recreating a water crash for the spacecraft itself in the Indian Ocean.
    • The spacecraft is an integral part of NASA's plans to send humans back to the moon and Musk's grand vision to eventually colonize Mars.

    The massive Starship spacecraft built and operated by SpaceX completed its boldest flight test yet, marking a crucial step forward for the vehicle that will carry astronauts to the lunar surface and one day on to Mars.

    The spacecraft, a 400-foot behemoth that consists of both a rocket and a vehicle, made its fifth unmanned demonstration Sunday morning from a launch site in Boca Chica, near Brownsville, Texas. And this time, SpaceX founder Elon Musk has gone one better – he's set his sights on not only returning the 232-foot-long launch vehicle to the launch site, but snatching it out of the air with two giant mechanical arms.

    Engineering teams have achieved the historic feat for the world's largest and most powerful rocket, while also recreating a water crash for the spacecraft itself in the Indian Ocean. The water landing was successful for the first time on the previous test flight in June, after previous flights ended with the spacecraft exploding.

    Following the test, Musk announced on his social media page

    Musk had been pressuring the Federal Aviation Administration for weeks, criticizing it for what he said was an “unnecessary” delay in approving the Starship for another test flight, which he said SpaceX had been ready to undertake since August. While the FAA, which licenses commercial rocket launches, had previously set a November timeframe for approval, the agency gave a last-minute green light on Saturday.

    The spacecraft is an integral part of NASA's plans to send humans back to the moon and Musk's grand vision to eventually colonize Mars. Musk has previously expressed his vision of sending the first spacecraft to Mars in late 2026, when Earth and Mars next line up, followed by crewed flights in 2028.

    As SpaceX prepares for more test flights, here's what happened on all the launches so far.

    Spaceship test flight: SpaceX launches Starship for fifth time; Successfully catches the booster in the giant mechanical arm

    Oct. 13, 2024: SpaceX captures rocket booster in mechanical arm

    The empty spacecraft took off for its fifth test flight on Sunday morning from the southern tip of Texas near the Mexican border. As with previous tests, the vehicle flew into orbit on a trajectory over the Gulf of Mexico.

    This time, for the first time, the first stage Super Heavy booster flew back to the launch pad. SpaceX had built a launch tower with massive mechanized metal arms, nicknamed “Chopsticks,” which then managed to catch the descending launch vehicle in a daring maneuver.

    For SpaceX, the ability to capture the Starship booster is critical because the company has a fully reusable vehicle that can fly again.

    Before the launch vehicle descended and landed, it had propelled the spacecraft into the atmosphere and sent it climbing over 130 miles.

    An hour after launch, Starship conducted a controlled landing in the Indian Ocean. Ahead of the demo, SpaceX engineers redesigned the rocket's heat shield, replacing the entire thermal protection system with newer tiles and an ablative backup layer.

    After the flight test, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson sent congratulations to SpaceX.

    The spacecraft is expected to play a crucial role in the U.S. space agency's lunar ambitions amid a heated international space race to return to the moon. As part of NASA's ambitious Artemis campaign, the space agency's first lunar program since the Apollo era in the 1970s, NASA is paying SpaceX $4 million to develop a spacecraft that can safely transport astronauts from orbit to the lunar surface .

    “As we prepare to return to the Moon under Artemis, further testing will prepare us for the bold missions ahead – including to the Moon's south polar region and then on to Mars,” Nelson said on X.

    June 6, 2024: Starship completes first successful landing

    The spacecraft successfully separated from the booster, with 32 of 33 engines firing properly during launch, approximately seven minutes into the flight.

    The booster landed successfully on Earth and landed in the Gulf of Mexico as planned. All six of Starship's engines successfully propelled it into orbit.

    The heat shields protecting the spacecraft's exterior took a beating, with at least one of them throwing debris into one of the live-streaming external cameras, but it managed a successful re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.

    About an hour and six minutes into the flight, Starship made its first landing and plunged into the Indian Ocean to thunderous applause.

    March 14, 2024: The spacecraft reaches space before disappearing into the atmosphere

    In the third test, the spacecraft managed to separate from the launch vehicle within minutes of launch and enter orbit, where it performed a series of flight tests as it glided through space.

    Video of its flight beamed back to Earth using SpaceX's Starlink satellite network captured the beginning of the spacecraft's re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. However, the signal was lost about an hour into the mission, before SpaceX concluded that the spacecraft had likely broken apart.

    Despite Starship's failure to make its planned landing in the Indian Ocean, SpaceX said the rocket still achieved several key milestones, including successfully igniting its 33 Raptor engines in the booster and opening a payload door.

    November 18, 2023: Starship makes it further in the second test, but still explodes

    During the spacecraft's second launch test, the rocket survived longer and reached some milestones, but eventually exploded anyway.

    The booster successfully separated from the rocket, which reached space before the ground crew lost communication with it after nine minutes. Three minutes later, SpaceX lost both the launch vehicle and the spacecraft in two explosions.

    SpaceX did not consider this a setback, but expressed optimism about the stage separation, saying the rest was just valuable data that would help them fix what went wrong.

    April 20, 2023: Spacecraft explodes minutes after initial launch

    The spacecraft got off to a rocky start when it exploded just four minutes into its first test flight on April 20.

    The spacecraft was able to launch from SpaceX's private starbase, but telemetry data showed that several of the spacecraft's engines had failed and the explosion was triggered before the booster and spacecraft could even separate.

    SpaceX later confirmed that the rocket's flight abort system was activated to destroy the tumbling vehicle before it reached its fiery end.

    Featuring: Julia Gomez, Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY

    Eric Lagatta covers breaking and breaking news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]

    Tagged:

    LEAVE A RESPONSE

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Kathleen William
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like

    ads