SpaceX unveiled Starship on Thursday for a seventh test flight, after weather disruptions delayed an experiment that will include the spacecraft’s first payload deployment test, and managed to catch the Super Heavy Booster, Starship lost connection and ” “underwent immediate and unscheduled disassembly. ” “
SpaceX unveiled Starship from Boca Chica, Texas, around 5:37 p. m. EST.
Starship’s Super Heavy booster is about to reuse one of its 33 engines for the first time, and SpaceX managed to catch the booster with two mechanical arms for the second time, about seven and a half minutes after liftoff (the first time on the fifth launch test). ).
However, a while after the capture, a challenge arose: a SpaceX commentator on the livestream said, “we think we missed the shipment in its ascent phase. . . In that ascent phase, some engines broke down, then a while later we lost communication. “
SpaceX later said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “Starship experienced an immediate and unplanned disassembly upon its ascent. “
The Starship flight is expected to last just over 66 minutes, according to SpaceX, and is expected to include several experiments for the spacecraft, adding the first Starship payload deployment verification (a set of 10 Starlink satellite replicas). and checks to update the spacecraft’s flight computer. and heat shield.
During Starship’s sixth launch test in November, the spacecraft crashed in the Indian Ocean, but an attempt to capture its Super Heavy booster was ignored.
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SpaceX said it will share more data about what went wrong with the launch in the coming hours and days. “With a test like this, good luck comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability,” SpaceX said in an article about X.
SpaceX has requested approval from the FAA to increase the maximum number of annual Starship launches from five to 25. The FAA is expected to rule on the proposal after a public comment period ends on Jan. 17.
SpaceX has announced Starsend six times since the spacecraft’s first flight in April 2023. SpaceX has been testing Starsend to make the spacecraft completely reusable, allowing the ship to carry both Sentment and others into space. Starsend is considered the largest and strongest rocket ever developed and measures approximately 400 feet. The first test lasted only 4 minutes and a second test flight in November 2023 lasted 8 minutes due to “rapid and unplanned disassembly. ” The spacecraft successfully re-entered Earth’s environment on its fourth test launch in June 2024, during which SpaceX remained in contact with Starsend on its flight and the spacecraft completed its first landing about an hour later. of the launch.
Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company Blue Origin effectively launched its New Glenn heavy-lift rocket into orbit for the first time on Thursday, but the company was unable to recover the rocket’s reusable propulsion stage. Bezos’ Blue Origin and Musk’s SpaceX have competed in recent years for government contracts and investments to expand a lunar lander for Artemis V, a NASA project that will take astronauts to the Moon in 2029. NASA has stated which intends to have both Corporations expand shipping versions of NASA’s human crewed landing systems.
Musk has a fortune valued at $424. 2 billion, making him the richest user in the world, according to our most recent estimates. Bezos is currently the richest in the world, with an estimated net worth of $236. 8 billion.
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