The first test launch on the 17th of the Starship Rocket Team, developed by Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX as a space rocket with maximum thrust, was decided to be stopped right before launch.
SpaceX entered the countdown to launch the 400m-long Starship rocket team at 8:20 am (10:20 pm Korean time) from the Boca Chica launch site in Brownsville, Texas, on the Gulf Coast of Mexico.
However, with about 5 minutes left before the launch, it was announced that the actual launch would be suspended and replaced with a dress rehearsal because the problem of ‘pressure from the lower rocket’ was not resolved. The Starship Rocket Team test launch can be attempted for the 2nd and 3rd times this week, such as the 18th and 19th.
The Starship rocket team’s ‘super heavy’ propulsion rocket at the bottom is 75 meters long and combines 33 Raptor engines to produce a maximum thrust of 16 million pounds. The thrust of the existing largest space-launched rocket is the 880 min-pound of the SLS, the propulsion rocket of Artemis 1 in November last year.
At the top of this rocket group, a space vehicle that can be used as a space cargo ship and a manned spacecraft is loaded under the name of ‘Starship’. This starship spacecraft, which is 45m longer than the existing spacecraft capsule, has six engines attached to it in the form of a rocket in this experimental launch.
If the prototype of the Starship rocket team was launched as planned, the lower stage propulsion rocket would separate eight minutes later and fall into the Gulf of Mexico, close to the launch site. The upper movable body, Starship, rises up to 250 km above the earth with the push of a propellant rocket and the power of its own engine, and gains the speed of earth orbit flight to cruise orbital flight. After circling about four-fifths of the Earth’s circumference, it falls near the island of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.
The total duration is 90 minutes, and the first test launch is the core of Musk’s Starship rocket team development, the lower stage super-heavy propulsion rocket and the upper stage Starship space vehicle fall into the sea and are submerged instead of being recycled.
Musk says that the upper Starship spacecraft, which is more than 40 meters tall, will be able to not only recycle, but also refuel midway through, so it will be able to carry a total of 100 tons of people and goods to the moon or Mars. The total displacement of Artemis 1 and 2 space capsule Orion is said to be 27 tons.
Mina has contracted with Musk to use Musk’s Starship spacecraft as a manned spacecraft for Artemis 3, a lunar human landing craft. Artemis 3, which will lead to the moon landing, is scheduled for launch in late 2025 or 2026, following the late 2024 launch of Lunar Orbiter 2.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.