Boca Chica, Texas: Elon Musk’s SpaceX made final preparations on Monday to launch its powerful new Starship rocket system into space for the first time on a brief but highly anticipated unmanned test flight from the Gulf Coast of Texas.
The two-stage rocketship, standing taller than the Statue of Liberty at 394 feet (120 meters), was due to blastoff from the SpaceX facility in Boca Chica, Texas, during a two-hour launch window that opens at 8 a.m. EDT ( 1200 GMT).
The test mission, whether its objectives are fully met or not, represents an important milestone in SpaceX’s ambition to send humans back to the Moon and eventually Mars – a new mission aimed at integrating Starship Also the central goal of the NASA spaceflight program.
But SpaceX faces enormous challenges launching just one spacecraft, which would quickly become, if it successfully gets off the ground, the most powerful rocket on Earth.
“Success is not what should be expected,” Musk told a private Twitter audience on Sunday night.
“Probably, tomorrow will not succeed,” he said. “It’s just a very fundamentally difficult thing.”
Earlier Sunday, the California-based company said on Twitter that its launch teams were moving forward with flight preparations, while keeping a close eye on potential wind-shear conditions in the forecast that could lead to delays.
On Sunday night, Musk said, the flight is “more likely” to be postponed than to be launched on Monday. SpaceX has backup launch windows for Tuesday and Wednesday at roughly the same time.
‘Like a meteor’
Both the lower-stage Super Heavy booster rocket and the upper-stage Starship cruise vessel are designed as reusable components to carry them into space, capable of flying back to Earth for a soft landing – a maneuver Which has become routine for SpaceX’s tiny Falcon 9 rocket. ,
But none of the stages will be recovered for the costly first test flight to space, expected to last no longer than 90 minutes.
Prototypes of the Starship cruise vessel have made five suborbital space flights in recent years up to 6 miles (10 km) above Earth, but the Super Heavy booster has never left the ground.
In February, SpaceX tested the booster, igniting 31 of its 33 Raptor engines for about 10 seconds, with the rocket in a vertical position atop a platform.
The Federal Aviation Administration just granted a license for the first test flight of the fully stacked rocket system last Friday, clearing the final regulatory hurdle for the long-awaited launch.
If everything goes according to plan on Monday, all 33 Raptor engines will ignite simultaneously to propel Starship on a flight that will circle Earth before re-entering the atmosphere and setting free in the Pacific at a supersonic speed of about 60 completes a whole class. miles (97 km) off the northern Hawaiian Islands.
After separating from Starship, the Super Heavy booster is expected to begin a controlled return flight before splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico.
Starship’s dazzling re-entry over the Pacific will test its ability to steer itself aerodynamically by using large flaps and shielding to counteract the intense friction generated as it plunges through the atmosphere.
Musk said, “The ship will be coming like a meteor.” “This is the first step in a long journey that will require many flights.”
He added that additional Super Heavy boosters were already on deck at Boca Chica for future test flights.
As designed, the Starship rocket is about twice as powerful as NASA’s own Space Launch System (SLS), which made its first uncrewed flight into orbit in November, carrying Orion on a 10-day journey around the Moon. Sent a NASA cruise ship called and back.
(Reporting by Joe Skipper in Boca Chica, Texas and Joey Roulette in Denver; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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