Elon Musk’s Space X is about to take its biggest leap with the first flight of its gigantic Satrtship. Here’s everything you need to know.
SpaceX starship, ready for its first flight.
Musk’s SpaceX received the green light from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to blast off its gigantic Starship on Friday. The Starship is the mightiest and biggest rocket to be built. It comes with the elevated goals of transporting people to the moon and the red planet. The almost 120 meters long rocket could blast off into the South Texas sky as early as Monday. The rocket will take off from a site near the Boca Chica Beech in the southernmost tip of Texas.
This is going to be its first launch with both of its sections. The earlier versions of the upper stage rocketed several miles into the stratosphere before crashing. After four failures, it landed upright in 2021. However, for this humanless demo, SpaceX will not be attempting a landing. Everything will fall to the sea.
“I’m not saying it will get to orbit, but I am guaranteeing excitement. It won’t be boring. I think it’s got, I don’t know, hopefully about a 50% chance of reaching orbit,” stated Musk. As usual, Musk is extremely blunt about the changes. He estimates an 80 percent chance of one of the starships in the fleet attaining orbit by the end of 2023. Additionally, he expects it is going to take about two years to achieve reusability.
More on the journey to the great beyond
The stainless steel Starship has a total of 33 main engines. All except two of its first-stage, methane-fueled engines fired during its test in January. Given its 16.7 million pounds of thrust, it could lift as much as 250 tons and accommodate about 100 people to Mars. However, before making it passenger-ready, Musk is going o use it to launch satellites into low-Earth Orbit and for Starlink, his satellite internet service. The test flight will last for about 90 minutes and fall short of a full orbit of the planet.
However, Starship is not the only new rocket on the horizon. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is getting its New Glenn rocket ready to debut from Florida’s Cape Canaveral. NASA will be using New Glenn to send two spacecraft to Mars next year. Additionally, Europe’s Arianespace will be launching Ariange 6 from French Guiana, South America, and United Launch Alliance will be launching the new Vulcan this year. NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket is going to carry astronauts as well.