A sixth test of the Starship megarocket failed on Tuesday, November 19 in the United States, under the gaze of President-elect Donald Trump. The objective was to repeat for the first time in October a successful maneuver: capturing the first stage of the rocket with the help of mechanical arms.
This time SpaceX did not attempt to carry out the maneuver, the first stage of the megarocket ended up in the sea. This complex operation should make this rocket fully reusable.
SpaceX intends to use Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket in the world, to colonize Mars. The development of the ship is also closely followed by NASA, the American space agency, which is counting on it to take its astronauts back to the surface of the Moon.
During the last test, the rocket gained a new admirer in the person of Donald Trump. In his victory speech on the night of the presidential election, he described witnessing the robbery and thinking “in a movie”.
“I called Elon. I said, “Elon, is that you?” He said, “Yes.” I said, “Who else can do this? Can Russia do it? No. Can China do it? No. Can the United States do it, apart from you? No” “went back to the president-elect. “I said, ‘That’s why I love you, Elon, it’s amazing!’ »
The SpaceX boss spent tens of millions of dollars to support the Republican’s campaign and got an advisory position in return, ignoring potential conflicts of interest as SpaceX has numerous ongoing contracts with the US government.
A successful test in October
The takeoff of this sixth flight occurred at 4 p.m. local time (23 p.m. in Paris) from the company’s Starbase space base in the extreme south of Texas. The objectives were largely similar to those of the previous test. The rocket consists of the Super-Heavy first stage (70 meters high) and, above it, the Starship (50 meters), which by extension gives its name to the entire launcher.
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After boosting the ship, Super-Heavy is supposed to detach from it and begin its descent. In October, instead of ending his tour at sea, as in the past, he managed to perform an unprecedented maneuver: return to his firing position. Just before hitting the ground, mechanical arms installed on the launch tower, nicknamed “the wands”, closed around him and immobilized him.
For its part, the Starship continued its flight until landing in the Indian Ocean. The same choreography was planned for Tuesday, although the ship would disembark during the day to facilitate visual observations. Tests of the heat shield were also planned.
March in perspective
All of these flights represent real challenges for a machine of this size. Several early tests ended in explosions. And in a video posted in late October by Elon Musk, showing him playing a video game, a man reporting on the fifth test talks in the background about how SpaceX was in “one second” to order the rocket to crash next to the launch tower.
The company is intensively developing the Starship, launching unloaded prototypes, to quickly correct problems found in real flight situations.
“The first Starships to Mars will take off in two yearsElon Musk recently said. These flights will be unmanned to check the reliability of an intact landing on Mars. » “If these landings go well, the first manned flights to Mars will be carried out in four years”added the coach, known for his very optimistic predictions.
Donald Trump has said he wants to send such missions to Mars before the end of his term. The goal of your new space companion is to build on the Red Planet “a self-sufficient city, within twenty years”.
