Starship, the largest rocket ever built on the launch pad
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April 17 could be an important, if not epochal day for the space race, one of those that change the rules of the game and open up great prospects. SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company which with its Falcon 9 rocket has become the most important satellite launcher, its own and others, after a few years of studies, preparation, trials, errors and successes is now attempting the big step with the first launch of his Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built.
The launch
The launch from the SpaceX base in Boca Chica, in full Texas, with a window of 150 minutes, can essentially start from 2 to 4.30 pm Italian time. The large spacecraft is all a record and, as Musk himself declares, it is a completely reusable space transportation system for people and things, which will take humanity back to the Moon, with many and frequent trips over the next 10 years. and in perspective even further: on Mars.
For several days, since April 5, Starship has been on the launch pad, ready to go. It is made up of two main parts: a first stage, called Super Heavy due to its size, 69 meters high and 9 meters wide and the actual aircraft part, 50 meters high and also 9 meters wide. In all therefore 119 meters, more than 30 high-power engines, the Raptors with a vaguely disturbing name, which can carry into orbit around the Earth or well beyond, from 110 to 150 tons of payload, a far cry from the only 27 tons of the NASA’s most powerful rocket, the SLS, Space Launch System.
The most complex system implemented so far
This is the first launch of a system that is probably the most complex ever and is therefore also an experiment in itself. Many tests of the individual pieces of this gigantic rocket have been made, many of which ended really badly, in a fall and a disastrous fire, but this is normal for such ambitious projects, even better if the accidents occur earlier. However, something may not work for the overall system and would be quite normal for a prototype of this size and power. Musk in a recent statement said that there is a 50% probability that everything will go well, but still “there will be no boredom”.
It is therefore not surprising that SpaceX has decided not to put the second stage of the Spaceship into orbit, to prevent such a large body from remaining out of control in low orbit, also becoming a danger for the thousands of satellites that are now circulating around the Earth. The flight will last only about 90 minutes, will arrive over 200 kilometers from the ground, and will end up towards Hawaii and, at least for this initial flight, it is not expected that the two stages will return to the ground to be reused, we will think about it from the second flight in Then.
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