This symbol provided by SpaceX shows the status of SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket on its launch pad in Texas. Elon Musk’s company will attempt Starship’s first orbital test flight of about 400 feet this year. (SpaceX via AP)
Luis Garza and his wife, Mireida Guerrero, and their two children from Monterrey, Mexico, pose for a photo in front of SpaceX’s Starbase on Friday, July 1, 2022. For years, Elon Musk has touted SpaceX’s Boca Chica complex as the “gateway to Mars,” from where his company would launch its massive spacecraft to take astronauts to the moon and Mars. But South Texas citizens now fear Musk will abandon Starbase as his first launch.
SAN ANTONIO — Elon Musk said Wednesday that SpaceX continues to check rocket boosters at its Starbase complex in Boca Chica as it struggles to position its spacecraft there for its first orbital launch next month.
But it also plans to start sending Starship rockets to Florida from South Texas next spring.
“Probably next quarter of next year, with cars first mailed from the Port of Brownsville to Cape Town,” Musk said Wednesday in response to queries via Twitter about launch times and locations.
SpaceX has developed the reusable Starship at its star base near Brownsville. The nearly 400-foot-tall vehicle is expected to carry shipments and astronauts on missions to the moon and Mars. It is also key to the expansion of the company’s Starlink communications satellite. the network.
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But while Musk warned Wednesday that the first orbital launch could come from South Texas, the imaginable move of Starships raises new questions about Starbase’s future. He has long promoted the complex as “the gateway to Mars,” the site from which the company would move. Free astronauts to the Moon and the Red Planet.
But as the private area company continues normal launches of its small rockets from Florida, where it is also building a Starship launch site at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, locals and others say Starbase will most likely continue its studies and move forward and move away from orbit. Released
Beyond and existing SpaceX employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the company’s plans, also said South Texas no longer noticed Musk as a gateway.
While he expected several delays earlier this year to complete an environmental review required to begin launch operations in Boca Chica, Musk himself hinted that he would target the launch of Starship from Cape Canaveral.
Regarding the long-awaited first orbital launch, he said Wednesday: “Maybe at the end of next month, but November is very likely. We will then have two thrusters and spacecraft in orbital flight position, with a full production of about one each and every two months.
Starship consists of a booster level called Super Heavy and the Starship moment level.
Three prototype spacecraft and a booster can be seen at SpaceX Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas. For years, Elon Musk has touted SpaceX’s Boca Chica complex as the “gateway to Mars,” from where his company would launch its large spacecraft to bring astronauts to the moon and Mars. But South Texas citizens now fear Musk will abandon Starbase as his first launch.
SpaceX has conducted static ignition checks on Starbase’s launch pad and will continue to check its thrusters there, Musk said. It will soon be able to fire 33 engines simultaneously, with the purpose of stacking a two-stage spacecraft on Starbase’s launch pad by early October.
But SpaceX also began moving forward last year with the structure of a Starship launch site at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, offering some other option for Starbase progression and launch.
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The building complex in Florida as it waits for the Federal Aviation Administration to complete an environmental impact on the study of orbital launches at the 47-acre Starbase complex.
“We have the Cape Town alternative, and we implemented the environmental approval for the Cape Town launch a few years ago and won it,” Musk said on one occasion on Starbase in February. He estimated it would take “six to eight months to build the Cape Town liberation tower and liberate from there. “
The FAA concluded its review in June, issuing a conclusion of “no significant impact” from orbital launches at Boca Chica. But the firm said it would require SpaceX to take more than 75 steps to mitigate environmental effects before issuing the operator’s license for launch.
SpaceX is reportedly nearing completion of the Starship launch tower at Cape Canaveral.
NASA has raised concerns about possible explosive release injuries at Site 39A because the facility is the only platform approved to release SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, on which the space company relies to send astronauts to the International Space Station.
Amid the uncertainty, SpaceX on Monday conducted a static fire test on seven Raptor engines in the Super Heavy prototype dubbed Booster 7 at Starbase. This was the largest number of engines reviewed to date, and those controls were considered critical steps toward a launch. . The controls simulate the firing of engines during an ascent to orbit.
Happy musk. ” The camera voltage seemed smart on all 7 motors,” he said on Twitter.
Musk said Wednesday that the company is “focused on reliability upgrades for the flight on Booster 7,” which is expected to accumulate on Starship’s Prototype 24 for the orbital launch test at Starbase. He noted that the company is also completing Booster 9, a few other super-heavy prototypes.
eric. killelea@express-news. net