SpaceX is preparing to launch the latest prototype of its spacecraft thousands of meters high and land it smoothly back on the ground.
If the company manages to carry out this complicated maneuver – shutting down the rocket’s engines as it plummets toward Earth, just in time to put it upright, slow its fall and land firmly on a landing pad – it will be the first time that One The starship’s vehicle ventured so high and came back whole.
Elon Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002, wants the final launch system Starship-Super Heavy to be completely and quickly reusable.
If Musk’s plan is successful, the starship can reduce the cost of reaching space 1,000 times, take hypersonic trips around the world and take astronauts to the moon.
Musk has said that his final plan is to build 1,000 starships that will transport enough people and cargo to Mars to build an independent, self-sustaining city there.
SpaceX first launched such a starship prototype on December 8. Called Starship Number 8, or SN8, it roared tens of thousands of feet above the company’s expanding facilities in Boca Chica, Texas.
The SN8 then tilted its nose forward, turned off the engines and started to plummet. As the vehicle approached the ground in a free fall similar to a free fall, he restarted the engines to turn up and slow down.
However, the low pressure in a propellant tank caused the ship to fall very fast, hit its landing area and explode catastrophically.
SpaceX still considered the seven-minute test flight a success, because it was inherently an experiment – and it flew higher than ever and performed unprecedented maneuvers.
For example, the SN8’s flight achieved sequential rocket engine shutdowns, aerial flips and a belly flop stabilized through wing flaps. (Previous test flights had been “jumps”, with prototypes being launched a few hundred meters into the air and landing below the range.)
Now SpaceX is ready for another big flight test and this time, it can hit the landing.
Like its predecessor, the new prototype, called SN9, has 16 floors and is powered by three Raptor engines. SN9 fell within a vertical assembly built in December 11, but SpaceX appeared to be making quick repairs and implementing it on a launch pad on the beach.
In preparation for launch, SpaceX cracked down on the SN9 and tested its engines three times on Wednesday – a record static firing rate for the Starship program.
The company looked set to launch this week, but two of the engines needed repairs, Musk tweeted On thursday. Musk added that he hopes SpaceX can speed up the engine switching process so that it takes “a few hours at most”.
SpaceX appears to be targeting a launch on Monday. The Federal Aviation Administration issued an airspace closure notice for the launch of a Boca Chica rocket that day, from 8 am to 6 pm CST. The FAA issued similar warnings for Tuesday and Wednesday – alternate dates in the event that weather or outages cause SpaceX to delay the test flight.
The closing of the airspace and the closing of local roads are necessary for the launch. The Cameron County judge issued road closure notices in Boca Chica for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, from 8 am to 5 pm CST.
How to watch the SN9 launch attempt live
SpaceX can broadcast the attempt to launch live on YouTube. Several online broadcasters, such as NASASpaceFlight.com and LabPadre, also plan to broadcast live video images of the flight. We will incorporate these active feeds below as they become available.
A series of events usually precedes the launch of a prototype starship.
A few hours earlier, SpaceX will clean up the personnel launch site. Almost an hour before the flight, the storage tanks at the launch site will begin to release gases as SpaceX prepares to supply the ship with cryogenic fuels. Refueling later causes the starship to release gases from its top, signaling that the launch can take place in minutes.
Bad weather, a technical failure or a boat entering the danger zone of the launch – a new challenge for the starship – can lead to delays.
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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