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SpaceX launched its enormous Starship into orbit for the first time on Monday, aiming for six full laps around Earth to prove its readiness for NASA Artemis moon program. The spacecraft carried 26 Starlink satellites after an engine shut down early but controllers proceeded.
SpaceX launched its enormous Starship into orbit for the first time on Monday, aiming for six full laps around Earth to prove its readiness for NASA Artemis moon program.
The spacecraft almost did not achieve the long-desired goal after one of its engines shut down too soon. But with everything else working well and the bad engine no longer needed, flight controllers decided after several tense minutes to proceed as planned. Starship is orbital, Mission Control announced to cheers.
Starship Carries Starlink Satellites to Orbit
Founder Elon Musk showpiece rocket, the biggest and most powerful ever built, carried 26 of the latest and most advanced Starlink satellites to join the 11,000 older models already providing internet service. They popped out of the spacecraft one by one, drawing more cheers from the SpaceX crowds looking on from the launch site at Starbase, Texas. It was Starship 14th full-scale launch from Texas southern tip in three years.
The earlier test flights ventured no farther than the Indian Ocean halfway around the world, often crashing in flames and briefly skimming space. This time, SpaceX was intent on circling the globe from an altitude of 170 miles (275 kilometres), not just once but six times over almost 10 hours, ending with a Pacific splashdown near Chile.
The first-stage booster was not meant to return to the Starbase launch site either, instead dropping into the Gulf of Mexico within minutes of the morning liftoff. SpaceX wants to ensure that everything works before flying Starship back to Starbase. If the spacecraft breaks apart over land and rains debris onto people, Musk said at a business summit earlier this month that our popularity would diminish very rapidly. That is why we are being extremely cautious here, he said.
SpaceX Eyes Rocket Recovery and Reuse
An operation by Musk SpaceX and the federal government successfully retrieves the rocket after it landed in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia. If all goes well with this orbital debut, the next Starship will return to the launch pad with giant mechanical arms grabbing the hovering spacecraft. If the catch works, and Musk gives it even or slightly better odds, then SpaceX will re-fly the spacecraft by year end or early next.
The 407-foot (124-metre) rocket was designed from the start to be fully reusable, a key to lowering launch costs. SpaceX managed to salvage the last Starship from the Indian Ocean in July. Engineers modified the newly launched Starship heat shield based on hands-on inspections from the recovered spacecraft, which is being tugged back to Starbase. SpaceX is pressing hard to certify Starship for orbital flight, a vital step toward moon and Mars travel.
NASA Artemis III mission is coming up as soon as next summer, a triple-launch docking exercise in orbit around Earth between an Orion capsule full of astronauts and competing lunar landers. Jeff Bezos Blue Moon will blast off first, then Orion, which will close in for a linkup, then Musk Starship for a docking with Orion once Blue Moon launches.
NASA Artemis Missions Rely on Lunar Landers
The next mission, Artemis IV slated for no sooner than 2028, would have astronauts landing on the moon in either Blue Moon or Starship, whichever is ready first. Subsequent moonshots will alternate between the two billionaires landers. Musk originally developed Starship for Mars, intending to launch scores of them with the red planet first settlers.
For now, he plans to focus on the moon and use Starship to haul satellites into orbit by the truckload, phasing out the company frailer Falcon 9 rocket within several years. A second Starship launch site is nearing completion at Florida Kennedy Space Centre and a third is planned for Louisiana.
Moon Crater Highlights Past Space Impacts
A NASA spacecraft circling the moon is providing the sharpest views yet of a crater carved by a crashing SpaceX rocket, highlighting past impacts as SpaceX pushes forward with its reusable orbital ambitions.
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abcnews:SpaceX's Starship rocket reaches orbit for first time after engine failureThis story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
Spacex Starship Elon Musk NASA Artemis Starlink Orbital Flight Reusability Moon Mission Artemis Moon Program Starlink Satellites Reusable Rocket Orbital Launch Rocket Reusability
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