After months of delay, SpaceX is finally ready to carry out the first test flight of its third version of the Starship vehicle. The largest rocket in the world is bigger than ever (124 meters with the latest updates) and should take off starting this Tuesday (19) from Starbase, the company’s installation in Boca Chica, Texas, close to the border with Mexico. The window for the attempt opens at 7:30 pm (Brasília time).
It has been a while since the last launch of a prototype of the spacecraft with which SpaceX hopes to make NASA’s plan to place astronauts on the surface of the Moon by 2028 possible. The most recent, eleventh integrated flight of the Super-Heavy propellant (the first stage) with a Starship (the second stage), took place on October 13 last year, with good results, ending the test protocol of the so-called Block 2, the previous version of the vehicle.
At that time, the company declared that it would carry out the first Block 3 flight in January, but the Super Heavy that would carry out this mission suffered damage in a ground test. Furthermore, the pressure on the company to show greater progress from flight to flight led to a change in strategy, with a reduction in the testing rate.
The first Block 3 flight took place at the beginning of March, then at the beginning of April, and now it finally seems about to take place, in the second half of May.
A wet test with the vehicle (in which it is fully fueled with a simulated countdown identical to that which would be carried out before a flight) was successful last Monday (11), paving the way for a launch attempt starting this Tuesday (19).
EVERYTHING NEW AND MORE OF THE SAME
The profile of the test that should take place from a new platform built by SpaceX at Starbase follows the pattern of the latest flights and is even more modest than some of the previous efforts.
The Starship will be placed on a “near-orbital” trajectory, which will take it to re-enter the atmosphere about an hour after launch, over the Indian Ocean.
The Super Heavy, in contrast to other flights, will not attempt a return to the platform, nor will it be recovered, and will make a controlled landing in the Gulf of Mexico.
During its space journey, Starship will launch 22 Starlink satellite simulators. They are not real equipment, but two of them will have cameras to photograph the vehicle’s heat shield before its reentry.
Ultimately, the spacecraft will attempt to control its landing in the Indian Ocean, but there are also no plans for it to be recovered or reused.
All of this has already been done on the eleventh flight. The idea is to demonstrate the same capabilities with the new, updated version of the rocket.
“The primary goal of the test flight will be to demonstrate each of the new parts in the flight environment for the first time, with each element of the Starship architecture featuring significant redesigns to enable full and rapid reuse that incorporate learnings from years of development and testing,” the company wrote in presenting the mission.
Among the most significant innovations are the increase in propellant tanks (which made the vehicle larger), the adoption of new versions of the Raptors engines in the two stages with greater propulsion capacity and the installation of a new reusable interstage structure – this is a ring that allows the second stage to be ignited moments before separation with the first, a procedure known as “hot staging”. The Super Heavy also now has three (instead of four) mesh fins that help guide the propellant through the atmosphere and back to the ground for reuse.
The company treats Starship Block 3 as a ready vehicle and, although new updates may occur, it hopes to qualify it to soon carry out actual orbital missions, with the launch of satellites from the Starlink constellation. It will be the first step towards conducting essential tests that will make future manned lunar missions viable.
By the end of this year, SpaceX hopes to demonstrate the ability to refuel Starship in orbit, an essential procedure so that it can serve as a lunar module in NASA’s Artemis program, starting with the fourth mission. The company is also racing to prepare, by the end of next year, a version of the vehicle that can make the recently redesigned Artemis 3 viable.
The mission intends to test, in low Earth orbit, the integration between the Orion capsule (which has already flown on the Artemis 1 and 2 missions) and the Starship (in addition to the Blue Moon Mk. 2, another lunar module developed by the company Blue Origin that could end up being used for Artemis 4 instead of the Starship, if it is more mature). Before any of the lunar modules are used to take astronauts to the Moon, the companies will also need to demonstrate an unmanned lunar landing and takeoff.
It seems like a lot of work to be done in a mere two and a half years in order to allow NASA to place its astronauts on the lunar surface by the end of 2028. And it is. It is not clear that this schedule is achievable, and SpaceX itself has admitted that it does not expect to have the Lunar Starship ready for the Artemis 3 test before the end of 2027. But the American space agency is stepping up to make it feasible, and partner companies need to do the same. A good start will be a successful Starship flight this week. To be checked.
Source: www.noticiasaominuto.com.br
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