Washington (AFP) – Elon Musk’s SpaceX is now aiming for Wednesday to conduct the next test flight of its massive Starship rocket, following a last-minute cancellation on Monday. The world’s biggest and most powerful launch vehicle is set to lift off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, during a launch window that opens at 5:30 pm local time (2330 GMT).
It will be Starship’s eighth orbital mission — all so far uncrewed — and the first since its dramatic mid-air explosion over the Caribbean during its last test. Standing 403 feet (123 meters) tall — about 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty — Starship is designed to eventually be fully reusable and is key to Musk and SpaceX’s vision of colonizing Mars.
Meanwhile, NASA is awaiting a modified version of Starship as a lunar lander for its Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon this decade. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded Starship after its previous flight on January 16 ended with the upper stage disintegrating in a fiery cascade over the Turks and Caicos Islands, prompting cleanup efforts for fallen debris.
Last Friday, the FAA announced that Starship could proceed with its next flight before the agency finalizes its review of SpaceX’s “mishap investigation.” During Joe Biden’s presidency, Musk frequently accused the FAA of excessive scrutiny over SpaceX’s safety and environmental concerns. Now, as one of President Donald Trump’s closest advisors, the world’s richest person faces allegations of wielding undue influence over regulatory agencies overseeing his companies.
For the upcoming flight, SpaceX says it has introduced numerous upgrades to the upper-stage spaceship that enhance its reliability and performance. The mission, expected to last just over an hour, includes another attempt to catch the booster stage using the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms — a feat SpaceX has successfully executed twice, including in the last flight.
Additionally, Starship will deploy Starlink simulators designed to mimic Starlink satellites, which will burn up upon atmospheric re-entry. Eventually, SpaceX aims to recover the upper stage as well, but for now, it is targeting splashdown in the Indian Ocean off the western coast of Australia, as in previous flights.
In a recent interview on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Musk said the toughest engineering hurdle is building a “fully reusable orbital heat shield — a problem that has never been solved before.” Despite the challenge, Musk remains optimistic, predicting that Starship will be fully and rapidly reusable by next year, a milestone he describes as the “fundamental breakthrough required for life to be multiplanetary.”
© 2024 AFP
