SpaceX - STARSHIP Test Flight patch.
April 17, 2023
The first takeoff of SpaceX's Starship, intended for trips to the Moon and Mars, did not ultimately take place on Monday.
The first takeoff of Starship, the world's largest rocket, will not take place on Monday due to a technical problem encountered during the last minutes of preparations, SpaceX announced during its live video. The takeoff of this giant was planned from the Starbase space base, in the far south of Texas in the United States.
SpaceX teams, however, continued to run the countdown and simulate take-off operations in the form of a dress rehearsal, stopped just before the scheduled launch time. Fallback dates are possible during the week. "We anticipate a minimum of 48 hours before we can attempt this test flight again," a SpaceX employee said during the company's live video. “A valve appears to be frozen,” SpaceX boss Elon Musk tweeted earlier.
Elon Musk on Twitter
The launch of Starship was scheduled around 8 a.m. local (3 p.m. in Switzerland) from the Starbase space base, in the far south of Texas in the United States. and the weather forecast was favourable. From its height of 120 meters, the rocket belongs to the category of super-heavy launchers, capable of transporting more than 100 tons of cargo into orbit. Its take-off power must be more than twice that of the legendary Saturn V, the Apollo lunar program rocket (111 meters).
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SpaceX on Twitter
For days now, billionaire Elon Musk's company has been posting polished images of this black and silver behemoth on its launch pad. The machine, which runs on liquid oxygen and methane, has never flown in its complete configuration, with its super-powerful first stage, called Super Heavy. Only the second stage of the vehicle, the Starship spacecraft which by extension gives its name to the entire rocket, has carried out suborbital tests (at an altitude of around 10 km).
SpaceX on Twitter (screen capture)
The flight plan for Monday was to be as follows: About three minutes after takeoff, Super Heavy was to break away and fall back into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The Starship spacecraft then had to continue its ascent on its own, and complete a little less than a circumnavigation of the Earth, before falling back into the Pacific Ocean. But this was the “best scenario”, SpaceX had said, as the outcome of the test is uncertain.
Elon Musk on Twitter
“Tomorrow will probably not be a success, if by that we mean reaching orbit,” Elon Musk said Sunday evening, speaking to his followers via Twitter. “If we see anything that worries us, we will postpone the flight,” he warned. When takeoff is attempted, the billionaire simply wished he would not destroy the launch pad.
His fear: that one of Super Heavy's 33 Raptor engines would explode and cause a "domino effect" by spreading to others. "It would surely take several months to rebuild the launch pad if we melt it down," he said. The main goal is to collect as much data as possible for the following prototypes.
Related article:
Starship's first orbital launch will take place on April 20, says Elon Musk
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2023/04/starships-first-orbital-launch-will.html
Related links:
SpaceX: https://www.spacex.com/
SpaceX Starship: https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship/
Images, Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: SpaceX/AFP/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.
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