Today, Monday, April 17, the rocket company is scheduled to launch the first orbital test flight of the Starship, the rocket with which Musk wants to conquer Mars.
It’s D-Day for Elon Musk and SpaceX.
The billionaire and SpaceX, his rocket and satellite company, pass the most important test in their ambition to conquer Mars on Monday, April 17.
Countdown.
Within a few hours, if all conditions are met, the company will launch the first orbital test flight of the Starship, a next-generation rocket.
SpaceX received the license on April 14th from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and immediately announced that this flight would take place three days later from Boca Chica, Texas.
“Starship team go load the prop. Target now at 8:20am local time,” the company tweeted.
It will be a 150-minute test window, but the schedule is “dynamic and likely to change,” SpaceX has already warned.
The live online broadcast of the flight test will begin 45 minutes before take-off.
“As we venture into new territory, we continue to appreciate all the support and encouragement we’ve received from those who share our vision of a future in which humanity explores among the stars,” the company said.
“Attempting to launch the spacecraft in about 7 hours,” Musk, the founder of SpaceX, posted on Twitter at 1:46 a.m. on April 17.
Three days ago, he promised excitement but also warned that the launch could be delayed by three days.
“I have a feeling it might be 3 days late…” said Techno King, because “there’s a huge amount of uncertainty with a new launch. We don’t know exactly when it’s going to fly.”
Why is spacecraft important?
The Starship and Super Heavy test flight will take off from Starbase, Texas. The booster stage would separate and then return and perform a soft water landing in the Gulf of Mexico. The Starship orbiter will continue on its way to an altitude of about 250 km before making a powered target landing in the Pacific Ocean.
“In its first flight test, the team will not attempt a vertical landing of the Starship or capture of the Super Heavy booster,” says SpaceX.
The Starship orbital launch is supposed to represent a leap forward for humanity, by offering a machine capable of reaching the Moon, and then Mars, while carrying tons of cargo. SpaceX intends to install Starlink space stations on the Super Heavy booster and interstellar orbit for this first test flight, and to use those stations to communicate with SpaceX’s satellite constellation.
Starship, a next-generation rocket, refers to a space transport vehicle and the upper stage of a launcher. The main stage – i.e. the booster needed to launch the spacecraft – is called the “super heavy”.
It is designed to replace the entire current range of SpaceX launchers and separate manned transport and cargo systems. These are the Falcon Heavy and Falcon 9, which are used to launch satellites, resupply the International Space Station, and orbiting crews.
SpaceX has tested the spacecraft on the second stage of the spacecraft, but only on high-altitude flights and not in orbit. On the other hand, the Super Heavy has yet to fly.
The successful test of the spacecraft will pave the way for NASA to use a modified version of the Starship to land the first woman and first person of color on the moon, a mission that will happen no earlier than 2025.
The vehicle could also be deployed to transport supplies to the moon to help build NASA’s proposed lunar base. NASA is currently targeting the late 2030s for the first astronaut mission to Mars.
For this launch, the FAA said it will implement various airspace procedures to reduce the impact of the launch on commercial flights and other airspace users. The federal agency, for example, will for the first time implement time-based procedures for launching from Boca Chica.
“This will identify and redirect only aircraft directly affected by closed airspace, allowing more aircraft to remain on their most effective and efficient trajectories. It was previously used only for launches from Florida’s Space Coast,” the regulator explained in an emailed statement. mail. .