SpaceX is preparing to fire its latest Starship prototype tens of thousands of feet in the air, this week.
The challenge is to get it back on the ground – that maneuver ended in an explosion, both times the company tried it before. This time, SpaceX founder Elon Musk estimated that the prototype has a 60 percent chance of a successful landing.
The prototype represents the upper stage of a two-part system: Eventually, an approximately 23-story amplifier called the Super Heavy would move the Starship’s spaceship to orbit. Musk’s long-term vision is that the system should one day fly astronauts to the moon and drive hypersonic power on Earth. He said he plans to build 1,000 Starships to transport humans and cargo to Mars.
But first, SpaceX needs to figure out how to land the rocket, as it’s critical to making the system reusable. Full reusability can help Starship reduce the cost of the thousandfold space.
The latest prototype becomes Starship series no. 10, or SN10. It’s not yet clear exactly when SpaceX plans to launch its test flight, but Musk said Sunday there is a ‘good chance’ to launch this week.
When that happens, SN10 will roar tens of thousands of feet above SpaceX’s facilities in Boca Chica, Texas. One by one, it must turn off its engines as it approaches the peak of its flight, then turn sideways and descend back to earth with a controlled belly flop. As it approaches the ground, the rocket must shoot its engines again to make it turn upright in time to slow down the descent and gently touch the landing strip.
The last two times SpaceX undertook such a flight, the prototypes slammed into their landing pads and exploded.
SPadre.com captured the second incident from a camera on top of a building about 10 km away:
Prior to this upcoming launch, SpaceX will have to exert a static fire to test the rocket’s engines, but it looks like the company has all the government clearances it needs for the launch. These include a license approval, local road closures and airspace closures.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued Thursday, Friday and Saturday notices of air closure for the area from 08:00 to 18:30 CT. Cameron County, Texas, also issued a notice on the closure of Boca Chica from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. for Thursday. However, the closure of road and airspace can be repeatedly canceled and rescheduled until SpaceX is actually ready to launch.
We will update this post as soon as SpaceX confirms the timing of the launch effort.
SpaceX faces regulatory hurdles to make Starship spin
SpaceX’s two previous test flights – those of prototypes SN8 and SN9 – are considered successes despite their explosive endings. This is because they have demonstrated that Starship is capable of pushing heights into suborbital and then controlling their fall.
However, both flights resulted in FAA investigations, as the agency wanted to determine the cause of the explosions. It appears that SN8 fell victim to low pressure in a propulsion tank, which caused the spacecraft to drop too quickly and hit the runway.
An additional issue with the attempt was that SpaceX did not get the correct FAA approval, which violates the launch license.
This prompted his own investigation, which then brought about the SN9 flight. Once the prototype did fly, one of the three Raptor engines could not re-ignite when the rocket approached the ground.
All investigations have been closed, an FAA spokesman told CNN reporter Jackie Wattles. According to the Washington Post reporter, the update license updates for the SN10 flight have been approved Christian Davenport.
Finally, SpaceX wants to send a spaceship into orbit to test its ability to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere. It requires a different type of FAA license, but obtaining it means removing many regulatory barriers, including a thorough environmental assessment.
(The environmental impact statement that SpaceX previously completed for Boca Chica launches focused on the company’s smaller rockets, rather than the much larger Starship-Super Heavy system.)
The company is now waiting to begin the environmental assessment, but depending on the findings, it is possible that SpaceX may have to make a new impact statement that could take up to three years.
The complicated case is a leaked FAA draft document, obtained by Insider, which revealed that SpaceX plans to dig natural gas wells in Boca Chica to fuel Starships and power plants. Such plans may also affect SpaceX’s environmental assessment process.
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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