SpaceX is continuing to gear up for the next test flight of its Starship megarocket.
Super Heavy is presumably being positioned for a static fire, a prelaunch test in which the booster's 33 Raptor engines will burn for a few seconds while the vehicle remains anchored to the pad.
SpaceX is developing Starship — a fully reusable vehicle that's the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built — to get people and cargo to the moon, Mars and beyond.
Starship's two stages failed to separate as planned on its debut mission, and SpaceX detonated the vehicle intentionally after just four minutes. The November flight saw a good stage separation, but that mission ended eight minutes after liftoff.
The goal of SpaceX is to build the technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary. This is the first time in the 4-billion-year history of Earth that it’s possible to realize that goal and protect the light of consciousness.
At Starbase on Thursday, April 4, SpaceX Chief Engineer Elon Musk provided an update on the company’s plans to send humanity to Mars, the best destination to begin making life multiplanetary.
All of SpaceX’s current programs, including Falcon, Dragon, Starlink, and Starship are integral to developing the technologies necessary to make missions to Mars a reality. The update included near-term priorities for Starship that will unlock its ability to be fully and rapidly reusable, the core enabler for transforming humanity’s ability to send large amounts of payload to orbit and beyond. With more flight tests, significant vehicle upgrades, and missions returning astronauts to the surface of the Moon with NASA’s Artemis Program all coming soon, excitement will continue to be guaranteed with Starship.
The talk also includes the mechanics and challenges of traveling to Mars, along with what we’re building today to enable sending around a million people and several million tonnes to the Martian surface in the years to come.
Quelle: SpaceX
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Update: 14.04.2024
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SpaceX Starship will be 500 feet tall to prepare for Mars missions, Elon Musk says
Starship reached orbital speed during its 3rd launch in March.
SpaceX's Starship, the largest rocket in the world, will get even bigger as the company continues to target Mars missions in the future.
Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of SpaceX, told employees on April 4 that Starship will eventually be as tall as 500 feet (150 meters), roughly 20 percent higher than the massive system aboard the Super Heavy rocket right now.
What's more, advances in reusability will have each launch cost roughly $3 million each, Musk predicted; that's less than a third of what a (much smaller) Falcon 1 rocket launch cost in 2004 when inflation is taken into account. (The figure two decades ago was $5.9 million, according to NBC, which is roughly $9.5 million in 2024 dollars.)
"These are sort of unthinkable numbers," Musk said in the Starship update, released publicly April 6, roughly one month after the third and last test flight to date. "Nobody ever thought that this was possible, but we're not breaking any physics to achieve this. So this is within the bounds, without breaking physics. We can do this."
Musk tends to deliver Starship updates at least once a year to highlight progress the company is making toward its long-term plans of settling Mars. Indeed, the last year has seen three Starship launches, so there has been progress made recently. Musk didn't, however, address delays in launching Starship that have contributed to pushing back the launch date for the first moon landing under the NASA-led Artemis program.
SpaceX was named the vendor for the Artemis 3 landing mission that, until recently, was set for 2025. In January, NASA elected to hold the launch date another year, to 2026, due to a range of technical issues. Aside from Starship not being ready — the agency wants many successful launches before approving it for astronaut flights — Artemis 3 was also delayed due to slow progress on spacesuits and problems with the mission's Orion spacecraft, among other factors.
However, Musk's words about Artemis, to employees, focused on Starship's future capabilities: orbiting the Earth and refilling its tanks, both of which have yet to be proven on its three test flights.
"This will ... be very important for the Artemis program for the NASA to get back to the moon," Musk said of those capabilities. He also envisions a "Moon Base Alpha" that would include ships "specialized for going to and from the moon", meaning there would be no heat shield or flaps due to the lack of atmosphere.
Musk's 45-minute speech touched on the usual themes for his Red Planet updates, focusing on how to send a lot of cargo out there for eventual settlers. He noted that would take thousands of launches to do; for perspective, Musk said the company has completed 327 successful Falcon series launches and about 80 percent of those had reused boosters (a key factor in reducing cost.)
SpaceX is by far the most active launching entity on Earth, and Musk forecasts the company will send roughly 90 percent of orbital mass aloft this year compared to China's 6 percent (the second-largest entity.)
Starship's next and fourth spaceflight attempt, expected to take place in May, aims to have the first stage of Super Heavy land "on essentially a virtual tower" in the Gulf of Mexico, Musk said. Once the company safely gets that done, they will consider using the launching area at Starbase, in south Texas, for future landings as soon as Flight 5. (Musk pegged the chances of success on Flight 4 at 80% or 90%.)
Musk also wants to perform two splashdowns of the upper stage of Starship in a row, in a controlled fashion, before sending it to Starbase on a future flight. "We do not want to rain debris over Mexico or the U.S.," he said. "My guess is probably next year when we will be able to reuse Starship."
Overall, Musk plans for multiple Starship launches to take place this year, and suggests SpaceX will build an additional six spacecraft by the end of 2024. A new rocket factory for the company should be available in 2025, which would make production even faster.
Future versions of Starship will include a "Starship 2" to send 100 tons of payload to low-Earth orbit and the 500-foot "Starship 3" for 200 or more tons. Bigger vehicles, Musk stressed, will mean fewer (four or five) refueling missions in low Earth orbit to get a Starship ready for the journey to Mars someday.
Of these milestones, Musk said it would be "very much a success-oriented schedule." His speech did not mention the Federal Aviation Administration, which must approve each one of the launches, nor ongoing criticism of the environmental impact of Starship on the ecologically sensitive area near Starbase.
That impact may continue to grow, as Musk said it would take roughly 10 launches a day to send hundreds of vehicles to Mars every two years (when the planet is closest) to make a long-term settlement feasible. As for the number of Mars-bound people, that would be roughly a million folks, he said — that matches predictions he made at least as far back as 2017. Musk also says he wants to get the settlement going "in 20 years." He said the same thing in 2011.
Quelle: SC
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Update: 22.04.2024
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It’s been one year since we’ve entered the Starship era
One year ago SpaceX launched its first fully integrated Starship rocket, which in my opinion is the start of the Starship era of spaceflight. While that mission was far from 100% successful, this new era is truly changing the way people look at the future of heavy lift rockets.
Starship developing nearing light at end of tunnel
It what was another great stroke of luck for Elon Musk, on 4/20 SpaceX successfully launched its first Starship rocket. And by “successfully launched” I mean the rocket left the pad under it’s own power, a pretty low bar.
However, this mission did have a pretty low bar for success. Musk stated weeks before launch that he was just hoping it wouldn’t blow up the launch pad the company just finished building months earlier. The rocket lifted off from Starbase, Texas and made its way just past stage separation before losing control and being terminated.
Years of successful Falcon 9 and Heavy missions caused confusion among the general public that mission was a failure, however it was just the first step of flight tests in developing the world’s largest and most powerful rocket.
One year later, I think it’s safe to say we’re seeing the light at the end of the Starship development tunnel. While launching it’s first commercial payload and being ready to do so are two very different paths, by the end of the year we could see SpaceX begin moving Starlink deployments over from Florida to Starship.
On its third flight just a few weeks ago, Starship flew through complete ascent burns on both the booster and upper stage as well as tested the Starlink payload door. While neither stage survived the return trips back to Earth, it was a major step forward for the rocket in getting as far as it did.
The next flight is expected to be the same and Musk wants to attempt a booster catch sometime in the next year. Activity has picked up on both the Gulf and East Coasts to get additional launch sites available for Starship as in the next few years, it could be a regular commercially operated rocket.
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Is the market ready for Starship?
While usually a single successful orbital mission would be required to claim commercial readiness. Starship will likely take a bit longer than just that.
First, the upper stage isn’t yet designed or tested to carry anything other than SpaceX’s Starlink flat satellites and second, the customers aren’t even ready for them yet.
The only customers either currently or soon will be sitting around waiting for Starship will be Starlink and NASA’s Artemis program. After that, companies and agencies are still developing what would even go inside it.
The general market has been moving smaller with SmallSats quickly becoming the most popular payload launched into space. They’re cheap, easy to replace, and allows you to build more. Both commercial and government stakeholders are moving deeper in this direction, though they are getting slightly larger over time but not by much.
Many of these payloads are happy using rideshare missions or dedicated launchers like Electron.
So for Starship, a rocket designed for much larger payloads, the biggest question will be who switches over for the cheaper flights. SpaceX could put together large rideshare missions and maybe that will work out.
However, I think the more likely outcome will be much different. Starship was designed for one purpose and one purpose only, Mars. Musk didn’t design or build Starship for any other reason than to make humanity multi-planetary. That is its market, and right now that market doesn’t exist.
So while many will take advantage of Starship’s lower cost to orbit, it will be and always will be built for a market that doesn’t exist: The Martian Market.
Quelle: SPACE EXPLORED
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Update: 6.05.2024
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Waco man suing SpaceX after he says rocket testing damaged his home
The Central Texas resident is pinning shifts in his home's foundation to vibrations caused by Elon Musk's spacecraft company.
US billionaire businessman and pilot Jared Isaacman flies in formation aboard a fighter jet over the SpaceX Starship spacecraft, before his third test flight from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on March 13, 2024.
Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images
Another lawsuit tied to SpaceX has been filed in Texas, and this time it has to do with alleged property damage.
Waco resident Edward Leslie is suing SpaceX, saying rocket engine testing at the company’s facility in McGregor, about 18 miles west of Waco, caused damage to his house. Specifically, he alleges that the foundation of his home has shifted due to vibrations caused by rocket engine testing at the company’s nearby Central Texas facility, KWTX reports.
Leslie says his home was damaged in February 2023 from continuous vibrations and that the foundation shifts caused damage including cracks to the ceiling, brick walls and floor, as well as the interior doors not staying open. He’s seeking $250,000 to $1 million in damages from SpaceX due to negligence.
Leslie is among a growing chorus of Texans who say they’re dealing with unfavorable conditions with SpaceX as a neighbor. A couple of years ago, some McGregor residents wondered if the disruptions were getting louder and more frequent. And just last month, a family living 10 miles from the facility said a glass door at their home shattered after a sonic boom. Local Waco TV station 25 News reported that the family sent SpaceX an invoice to cover the cost and labor of replacing the door but haven’t heard back.
While the case with Leslie involves rocket testing, residents in South Texas near SpaceX’s rocket launches have said the vibrations from test flights of the company’s Starship rocket shake the foundation of their homes.
“It's exactly what an earthquake would do, and it is terrifying,” Michelle Serrano, a leader with community group Voces Unidas RGV, said during a February press conference.
“Many times this happens early in the morning. It jostles people awake. People really truly believe, and there has been commentary, indicating that people think that it's the end of times because they have never experienced anything like that before,” Serrano said. “We are living a very terrifying prospect. Our homes could collapse.”
Quelle: CHRON