This story was originally Published in WIRED Italia and translated from Italian.
SpaceX has reached a key milestone in testing its Starship spacecraft, which it hopes to use for manned missions to the Moon and Mars. After yesterday’s test launch, the super heavy booster launching Starship returned to Earth and landed on the “Mechazilla” launch tower, successfully attempting this maneuver for the first time in history. This success brings SpaceX one step closer to its goal of making Starship a fully reusable spaceflight system.
After separating from Starship after liftoff and burning most of its fuel, the 70-meter-tall Super Heavy used 13 of its 33 engines for a controlled descent, then all but three It stopped and maneuvered itself on the two metal arms of the launch tower. In Boca Chica, Texas. The entire process from liftoff to landing on Mechazilla’s “chopsticks”, which SpaceX called the arm, took seven minutes.
Meanwhile, after separating from the Super Heavy, the Starship spacecraft continued to fly for about an hour, propelled by six engines, before splashing down in the Indian Ocean.
Starship is the largest and most powerful spacecraft ever built, and its purpose is to take astronauts to the moon and Mars. After a series of increasingly complex test flights that began in 2019 and initially began with simple tests on an aircraft called Starhopper just a few meters off the ground, SpaceX announced that it would moved on to more ambitious tests.
The most recent test before yesterday took place in June, when the rocket and spacecraft managed to survive re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere and practice ocean landings, despite some serious problems. The Super Heavy performed a maneuver to simulate a future return to the launch tower. Controlled descent to a specific location over the Gulf of Mexico.
Landing a rocket after flight is a feat that SpaceX has already successfully accomplished multiple times with its smallest rocket, the Falcon 9, the company’s current workhorse. However, Starship is a much more powerful and complex system than Falcon 9. Powered by 33 engines, more powerful than those used in the Falcon, the superheavy booster provides about 10 times more thrust during takeoff. The machines get bigger and the feat of landing becomes more difficult.
Although SpaceX is still in the testing phase of Starship, the goal is to use the Super Heavy and Mechazilla towers to avoid the need to build a new rocket for each launch, thereby significantly reducing launch costs and increasing its The result is to increase the frequency of launches. Rapid reuse will be essential if SpaceX wants to achieve its goal of dramatically reducing the time and cost of transporting cargo and people into orbit and into deep space. SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk told CNN that the ultimate goal for the Super Heavy is to return the rocket to the launch pad within minutes of its return and refuel in just 30 minutes after landing. The aim is to make it possible to take off again.
The success of the Super Heavy landing allows SpaceX to move on to its next challenge. This is the in-orbit refueling process needed to land a spacecraft on the moon.
(Tag translation) Science
