Elsa Sc s looks at a disaster
SpaceX Explosion – Elon Musk is facing a difficult phase in life. He is already entangled in Twitter controversy that has badly affected his credibility as a visionary entrepreneur. Now his SpaceX’s Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, took off from a launch-pad in South Texas but exploded midair before stage separation. This launch marked the vehicle’s historic first test flight. The massive Super Heavy rocket booster containing 33 engines lifted off and sent a massive boom across the coastal landscape as it fired to life. The flight reached its highest point 24.2 miles (39 kilometers) above the ground and the explosion occurred about four minutes after liftoff. The vehicle experienced multiple engines out during the flight test, lost altitude and began to tumble resulting in commanding the flight on both the booster and ship.
Although it ended in an explosion, this test met several of the company’s objectives for the vehicle. Clearing the launchpad was a major milestone for Starship. In the lead-up to liftoff, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sought to temper expectations, saying that success is not what should be expected as that would be insane as with a test like this, success comes from what is learnt in the process. SpaceX will need a new launch license from the FAA to make another attempt but the company does not expect the process to be as laborious as securing the license for this launch.
The test flight came after years of explosive tests, regulatory hurdles and public hyping from Musk. The company is known to embrace fiery mishaps during the rocket development process. SpaceX maintains that such accidents are the quickest and most efficient way of gathering data, an approach that sets the company apart from its close partner NASA, which prefers slow, methodical testing over dramatic flare-ups. Musk has talked about Starship — making elaborate presentations about its design and purpose — for years, and he frequently harps on its potential for carrying cargo and humans to Mars, though NASA also plans to use the vehicle to put its astronauts on the moon. He has even said that his sole purpose for founding SpaceX was to develop a vehicle like Starship that could establish a human settlement on the Red Planet.
The test flight was a small step in a sweeping project. Before Starship can complete its first mission or host astronauts, SpaceX has significant technological questions to hash out. NASA has tapped SpaceX to provide a Starship lunar lander that would ferry astronauts from a separate spacecraft down to the moon’s surface for the Artemis III mission which is scheduled as early as 2025. Before that mission can take off, however, SpaceX has to prove that Starship can make it to the moon — much less Mars, which is Musk’s ultimate ambition. The sheer mass of the vehicle will force the company to refuel the spacecraft while it is still in Earth’s orbit. More than a dozen launches — carrying nothing but propellant — may be required to give a single Starship lunar lander enough fuel to traverse the 238,900-mile (384,500-kilometer) void between Earth and the moon.
Even after flight tests begin to prove the vehicle’s design, the Starship spacecraft must be fitted with all the necessary life support equipment astronauts will need for a journey to deep space. Development of Starship has been based at SpaceX’s privately held spaceport and testing began years ago with brief hop tests of early spacecraft prototypes. The company started with brief flights that lifted a few dozen feet off the ground before evolving to high altitude most of which resulted in dramatic explosions as the company attempted to land the prototypes upright. One suborbital flight test in May 2021 however, ended in success. Since then, SpaceX has also been working to get its Super Heavy booster prepared for flight. The gargantuan, 230-foot-tall (69-meter-tall) cylinder is packed with 33 of the company’s Raptor engines. Fully stacked, Starship and Super Heavy stand about 400 feet (120 meters) tall. The Weekender
Elsa Sc S is doing her graduation from LUMS & a keen researcher
SpaceX explosion
Bytheweekendr
Dated
May 3, 2023
Elsa Sc s looks at a disaster
SpaceX Explosion – Elon Musk is facing a difficult phase in life. He is already entangled in Twitter controversy that has badly affected his credibility as a visionary entrepreneur. Now his SpaceX’s Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, took off from a launch-pad in South Texas but exploded midair before stage separation. This launch marked the vehicle’s historic first test flight. The massive Super Heavy rocket booster containing 33 engines lifted off and sent a massive boom across the coastal landscape as it fired to life. The flight reached its highest point 24.2 miles (39 kilometers) above the ground and the explosion occurred about four minutes after liftoff. The vehicle experienced multiple engines out during the flight test, lost altitude and began to tumble resulting in commanding the flight on both the booster and ship.
Although it ended in an explosion, this test met several of the company’s objectives for the vehicle. Clearing the launchpad was a major milestone for Starship. In the lead-up to liftoff, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sought to temper expectations, saying that success is not what should be expected as that would be insane as with a test like this, success comes from what is learnt in the process. SpaceX will need a new launch license from the FAA to make another attempt but the company does not expect the process to be as laborious as securing the license for this launch.
The test flight came after years of explosive tests, regulatory hurdles and public hyping from Musk. The company is known to embrace fiery mishaps during the rocket development process. SpaceX maintains that such accidents are the quickest and most efficient way of gathering data, an approach that sets the company apart from its close partner NASA, which prefers slow, methodical testing over dramatic flare-ups. Musk has talked about Starship — making elaborate presentations about its design and purpose — for years, and he frequently harps on its potential for carrying cargo and humans to Mars, though NASA also plans to use the vehicle to put its astronauts on the moon. He has even said that his sole purpose for founding SpaceX was to develop a vehicle like Starship that could establish a human settlement on the Red Planet.
The test flight was a small step in a sweeping project. Before Starship can complete its first mission or host astronauts, SpaceX has significant technological questions to hash out. NASA has tapped SpaceX to provide a Starship lunar lander that would ferry astronauts from a separate spacecraft down to the moon’s surface for the Artemis III mission which is scheduled as early as 2025. Before that mission can take off, however, SpaceX has to prove that Starship can make it to the moon — much less Mars, which is Musk’s ultimate ambition. The sheer mass of the vehicle will force the company to refuel the spacecraft while it is still in Earth’s orbit. More than a dozen launches — carrying nothing but propellant — may be required to give a single Starship lunar lander enough fuel to traverse the 238,900-mile (384,500-kilometer) void between Earth and the moon.
Even after flight tests begin to prove the vehicle’s design, the Starship spacecraft must be fitted with all the necessary life support equipment astronauts will need for a journey to deep space. Development of Starship has been based at SpaceX’s privately held spaceport and testing began years ago with brief hop tests of early spacecraft prototypes. The company started with brief flights that lifted a few dozen feet off the ground before evolving to high altitude most of which resulted in dramatic explosions as the company attempted to land the prototypes upright. One suborbital flight test in May 2021 however, ended in success. Since then, SpaceX has also been working to get its Super Heavy booster prepared for flight. The gargantuan, 230-foot-tall (69-meter-tall) cylinder is packed with 33 of the company’s Raptor engines. Fully stacked, Starship and Super Heavy stand about 400 feet (120 meters) tall. The Weekender
Elsa Sc S is doing her graduation from LUMS & a keen researcher
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