STARSHIP. Elon Musk’s Space X company was trying this Thursday to launch the biggest rocket ever built, the Starship mega-rocket and its two stages. If the risky launch was successful, everything ended after three short minutes…
[Mis à jour le 20 avril 2023 à 17h30] Phew of relief then big boom in the sky of Texas this Thursday, April 20, 2023. The test mission of Starship, the largest existing rocket in the world with a size of 120 meters (the equivalent of the first two stages of the Eiffel Tower), carried out its first full take-off but the orbiting of its module failed during the separation phase with an explosion after a little over three minutes of flight (to be seen from the 55th minute on the live broadcast below) . Elon Musk and his company Space X have therefore not completely fulfilled their mission. “We learned a lot for the next takeoff test in a few months,” Elon Musk tweeted after the aborted flight.
The launch was spectacular as Starship’s lift-off power is more than twice that of the legendary Apollo program’s Saturn V rocket on the Moon ! Comparing the size of this rocket with NASA’s last SLS rocket or with the old space shuttle is dizzying…
The 2nd stage of this rocket is a key element for the return of Man to the Moon since it was he who was chosen by the NASA as the element to ensure the landing of its astronauts from 2025. Communication or excess of caution, Elon Musk had not hidden his pessimism about this launch. The fear of the billionaire was above all the destruction of the launch pad. “Tomorrow will probably not be a success, if by that we mean reaching orbit,” he said on Monday via his Twitter account a few hours before the ultimately aborted launch. “It would surely take several months to rebuild the launch pad if we melt it down,” he added. “If we get far enough away from the launch pad before there’s a problem, I’ll consider that a success.”
Is this really a success? Time is running out to the Moon. The Super Heavy launcher which should become the most powerful ever used is the one NASA has chosen to send astronauts to the Moon from the Artemis III mission. Before that, he should bring a crew of personalities into lunar orbit before bringing them back to Earth as part of the dearMoon project which should take place at the end of 2023. More ambitious, Elon Musk hopes that this rocket will one day make it possible to achieve a manned mission to Mars… There is still a long way to go for that.
The Starship rocket SpaceX has been expected for several years and is somewhat behind schedule. In September 2022, the ultra-powerful launcher successfully ignited seven of its thirty-three engines for the first time. During the following November, fourteen of them were successfully tested. Finally, on February 9, 2023, 31 of the 33 launcher engines were successfully ignited simultaneously, making it possible to envisage an orbital flight for the month of March, finally postponed to April 20, 2023. The launch this time took place and was to be followed live on the SpaceX Youtube account below.
What is SpaceX’s Starship?
The Starship is a rocket developed by the SpaceX company which is composed of a launcher, the Super Heavy, surmounted by the Starship spacecraft. It is on board the latter that the astronauts of the Artemis III and Artemis IV missions will land on lunar soil.
From a performance point of view, the Starship rocket is on the way to becoming the most powerful ever used and thus dethroning NASA’s SLS launcher. The entire rocket has a total of thirty-three Raptor engines. The upper part, the Starship, is designed to be available in different versions depending on the needs.
SpaceX’s Starship rocket is the largest and most powerful ever built. This rocket is composed of an extremely powerful launcher, the Super Heavy, capable of returning to land on Earth to serve again, surmounted by a Starship vessel which is also intended to be reusable. Its unrivaled power is achieved through thirty-three Raptor engines using liquid methane as fuel.
During takeoff, the first stage, named Super Heavy, propels the rocket into the sky. Once in the upper atmosphere, it detaches from the upper part, rotates and returns to land on Earth, spreading its feet for a soft landing. For its part, the upper part consisting of the Starship vessel, turns on its engines and continues its journey in space alone.
How big is Starship?
The Starship rocket measures a total of 120 meters high and 9 meters in diameter, making it the largest rocket ever built. It thus dethrones the Saturn V rocket which sent the first astronauts to the Moon during the Apollo missions. Its size is out of all proportion to NASA’s SLS launcher, which peaks at 98 meters in height once equipped with the capsule. Orion. Only the Starship, that is to say the upper part of the rocket, measures 50 meters high and weighs 1,200 tons.
How much does the Starship rocket cost?
SpaceX has not released the total price for the construction of the Starship rocket, but we know the amount of the contract that was signed between Elon Musk’s company and NASA for the various Artemis missions that involve SpaceX. Thus, for Artemis III, NASA paid 2.89 billion dollars. For Artemis IV and the new version of the Starship spacecraft, the contract amounts to 1.15 billion dollars.
In addition, the SpaceX company has unveiled the prices it hopes to be able to offer for its Starship rocket launch services. Elon Musk thus plans to break the prices of the space economy by proposing a price of 2 million dollars per flight while the SLS costs 2 billion dollars.