The Elon Musk-owned SpaceX was slated to launch 'Starship' rocket on Monday from a site in Texas in its first test flight.
The Starship rocket made by Elon Musk's SpaceX is the most powerful rocket ever made. Starship has contracts for two human missions to Moon from NASA.
The Elon Musk-owned SpaceX was slated to launch 'Starship' rocket on Monday from a site in Texas in its first test flight.
An issue with a pressurant valve delayed the launch today.
The success of the launch would be a critical boost for SpaceX as well as the US space program. A variant of the Starship is tasked with landing humans on Moon for the first time on Moon in over 50 years under NASA's Artemis III mission. The mission could take place as soon as 2025.
The Starship is the most powerful rocket ever built and is considered to be almost twice as powerful as the second-most powerful one.
Here we explain what's Starship, what does the test flight mean, and what role the Starship will play in spacefaring.
The Starship is a rocket made by SpaceX. It is the most powerful rocket ever made and is key to SpaceX founder and CEO Musk's vision of interplanetary travel.
The Monday's launch is a highly anticipated event. Its success will be boost for SpaceX as well as NASA. However, Musk has said that hopes should be limited as this is the first time ever this spaceship is being tested. Notably, rockets often malfunction in first test flights. Just months ago, the Artemis I mission was delayed for months because of a series of malfunctions.
Musk said on Twitter, "It's the first launch of a very complicated, gigantic rocket, so it might not launch. We're going to be very careful, and if we see anything that gives us concern, we will postpone the launch...If we do launch, I would consider anything that does not result in the destruction of the launch pad itself to be a win."
The Starship spacecraft comprises a rocket called Super Heavy Rocket and a spacecraft attached to its top called the Starship. Collectively, both the systems are called Starship and are around 120 metres in height, with Super Heavy being 69 m tall and Starship being 50 m tall, according to SpaceX website.
While the current missions are Moon-centric, SpaceX is aiming to Mars and even beyond.
"SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket –collectively referred to as Starship– represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. Starship will be the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, capable of carrying up to 150 metric tonnes fully reusable and 250 metric tonnes expendable," says SpaceX on its website.
The Starship is key to US space ambitions as the NASA has awarded SpaceX two contracts for Moon missions that would involve variants of Starship. The first of these will be the Artemis III mission which would land humans on Moon for the first time in over 50 years. While this could happen as soon as 2025, the second mission directed towards establishing a sustained presence at Moon will take place in 2027, according to NASA.
Following the succesful test flight of the Starship, a variant of Starship will have to carry out a dummy landing on Moon to prove the capability to taking astronauts to Moon. Following this landing, humans will finally be taken to the Moon by Starship rocket.
"NASA initially selected SpaceX to develop a human landing system variant of Starship to land the next American astronauts on the Moon under Artemis III, which will mark humanity’s first return to the lunar surface in more than 50 years. As part of that contract, SpaceX will also conduct an uncrewed demonstration mission to the Moon prior to Artemis III," said NASA in a release in November 2022.
The Artemis is a three-stage space program by NASA that would take humans to Moon for the first time in over five decades. While Artemis III is on Starship, NASA's own Space Launch System (SLS) rocket will undertake the Artemis II mission in which humans will orbit the Moon, going to the farthest point yet in space. It will pave way for the ultimate landing goal of Artemis III.
AFP notes, "NASA will take astronauts to lunar orbit itself in November 2024 using its own heavy rocket called the Space Launch System (SLS), which has been in development for more than a decade. Starship is both bigger and more powerful than SLS."
Explaining the Monday's launch, AFP says, "If all goes according to plan, the Super Heavy booster will separate from Starship about three minutes after launch and splash down in the Gulf of Mexico. Starship, which has six engines of its own, will continue to an altitude of nearly 150 miles, completing a near-circle of the Earth before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean about 90 minutes after launch."
The Starship as well as the Artemis program mark the dawn of the New Space Age as, contrary to previous Moon missions, the Artemis missions are not just about landing on Moon but are about a sustained long-term prsence on Moon. The Artemis program seen Moon as a stepping stone to Mars and beyond.
Musk has similar ambitions with Starship. A long-time champion of inter-planetary travel, SpaceX believes Starship would make humans a spacefaring race capable of going even beyond Mars.
The BBC notes, "It's [Starship] designed to be fully and rapidly reusable. He [Musk] envisages flying people and satellites to orbit multiple times a day in the same way a jet airliner might criss-cross the Atlantic. Indeed, he believes the vehicle could usher in an era of interplanetary travel for ordinary humans."
Astronautical engineering professor Garrett Reisman tells BBC, "He [Musk] sees Starship as potentially another giant paradigm shift, an incredible increase in capability - the capability to truly bring people on large scale to Mars. There's a lot of potential benefit, but there's also a lot of potential risk because this is very difficult. Nobody's built a rocket anywhere near this big - twice as big as the next nearest thing."
Artemis I sent the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket into space to mark the beginning of the Artemis program. It was a test-run for Artemis II.
Artemis II will be the first crewed flight test of the SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft around the Moon, according to NASA.
Artemis II will make a journey similar to Artemis I but with humans. It would make history as it would take humans to their farthest point yet in space.
"Astronauts on their first flight aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft will travel farther into the solar system than humanity has ever traveled before," said NASA.
The mission can be launched in 2024 and will pave the way for Artemis III which would finally land humans on the Moon.
Unlike previous Moon missions, the Artemis III is not a brief exploratory expedition. It aims at establishing a long-term presence on Moon which would be the stepping stone in the journey to Mars.
"We will collaborate with commercial and international partners and establish the first long-term presence on the Moon. Then, we will use what we learn on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars," said NASA.
The NASA will set up a "base camp" on Moon which would allow "robots and astronauts to explore more and conduct more science than ever before".
As for the stated objectives, the NASA said that they are "going back to the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new generation of explorers: the Artemis Generation".
The program is therefore much more than merely sending humans on Moon. It is extending human presence from Earth to Moon and it could possibly be the first step in turning the human race into an inter-planetory specie.
Vox explains: "The Artemis program is laying the groundwork for an unprecedented level of activity on the lunar surface, including a human base camp, a series of nuclear reactors, and a mineral mining operation. NASA has expressly said that it wants to develop a lunar economy, and the space agency has also established the Artemis Accords, a set of principles for exploring the moon that more than 20 countries have now joined."