Elon Musk’s SpaceX made final preparations early Monday to launch its powerful new Starship rocket system Space for the first time on a short but highly anticipated unmanned test flight from the Texas Gulf Coast.
Taller than the Statue of Liberty at 400 feet (120 m) tall, the two-stage rocket ship was scheduled to launch during a two-hour launch window that begins at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT).
Whether or not its objectives were fully achieved, the test mission represents an important milestone SpaceX’s Ambition to send people back to the moon and eventually to Mars – also the central goal of a renewed one NASA Space program to integrate the spaceship.
But SpaceX faces tremendous challenges when it comes to launching a spacecraft that would instantly become Earth’s most powerful rocket if it successfully lifts off the ground.
“Success is not what should be expected,” Musk told a private Twitter audience Sunday night, saying the best-case scenario would provide crucial data on how the vehicle ascends into space and how it flies back to Earth becomes.
“It probably won’t happen tomorrow,” he said. “It’s just a very fundamentally difficult thing.”
Earlier Sunday, the California-based company said on Twitter that its launch teams are moving ahead with flight preparations while keeping a close eye on potential wind shear conditions in the forecast that could force a delay.
On Sunday night, Musk said “it’s more likely” the flight will be delayed than it is to take off on Monday. SpaceX has Tuesday and Wednesday backup launch windows for roughly the same times.
“LIKE A METEOR”
Both the lower-stage Super Heavy launch vehicle and the upper-stage Starship cruise ship that will launch them into space are designed as reusable components that can fly back to Earth for soft landings — a maneuver unheard of for the smaller Falcon-9 rocket from SpaceX has become routine.
But none of the stages will be salvaged for the expendable first test flight into space, which is expected to last no more than 90 minutes.
Prototypes of the Starship cruise ship have made five subspace flights up to 6 miles (10 km) above Earth in the last few years, but the Super Heavy Booster never left the ground.
In February, SpaceX performed a booster test burn, firing 31 of its 33 Raptor engines for about 10 seconds while the rocket was bolted vertically on a platform.
The Federal Aviation Administration granted a license for the first test flight of the fully stacked missile system just last Friday, clearing one final regulatory hurdle for the long-awaited launch.
If all goes as planned on Monday, all 33 Raptor engines will fire simultaneously to propel the spacecraft on a flight that nearly completes a full orbit of the Earth before re-entering the atmosphere and freeing into the Pacific Ocean at about 60 supersonic speeds falls miles (97 km) off the northern Hawaiian Islands.
After separating from the spacecraft, the Super Heavy Booster is scheduled to perform the beginnings of a controlled return flight before plunging into the Gulf of Mexico.
The spacecraft’s blazing re-entry across the Pacific will test its ability to aerodynamically steer itself using large flaps and its heat shield to withstand the intense friction created as it plummets through the atmosphere.
“The ship will come in like a meteor,” Musk said. “This is the first step on a long journey that will require many flights.”
More super heavy boosters are already on deck at Boca Chica for future test flights, he added.
As designed, the Starship rocket is nearly twice as powerful as NASA’s own Space Launch System (SLS), which made its first unmanned flight into orbit in November, and a NASA cruise ship called the Orion on a 10-day Voyage around the moon and back.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
