Wednesday, May 5, 2021

SpaceX Starship Lands on Fifth Attempt

 

© -/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully landed its Starship test vehicle unscathed on the fifth attempt on Wednesday, advancing efforts to prepare it for future flights and landings on the moon and Mars.

The uncrewed 16-story rocket ship was launched from the company’s facility in southern Texas and landed back on its pad after a six-minute flight, climbing as high as 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). A small fire broke out at the base of the rocket after landing, but was extinguished after a few minutes.

The mission continues a frenetic period of launches by closely held SpaceX for government, military and commercial customers in recent weeks, including the successful transit of astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

The experimental Starship design underpins the recent $2.9 billion NASA contract win by SpaceX to provide a lunar lander for astronauts later in the decade. The two losing bidders, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin LLC and Leidos Holdings Inc., filed official protests over the award which they said was driven in part by lack of funding to hire more than one contractor.

Previous SpaceX efforts since the first Starship flight last December ended with the loss of the vehicle, highlighting the complexity of the mission, which includes flipping the vehicle upright from a nose-down position before touchdown.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the company’s formal name, said it is evolving the Starship design rapidly and needed to perform multiple test flights before it would be ready for an orbital or lunar mission. The latest launch vehicle featured a new engine design and upgraded avionics.

The Starship has yet to be fired into orbit or carry any crew, and would need larger engines—currently under development—to reach orbit and be fueled in space for longer missions, such as to the moon.

SpaceX last week secured clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration for its next three missions, including the latest.

The firm has to secure approval for design changes and adhere to the FAA’s assessment of risks, as well as have government inspectors at the launch site. Starship launches require road closures and the evacuation of residents in the immediate area around Boca Chica Village, which hosts the SpaceX facility.

At various times Mr. Musk has said SpaceX foresees sending a Starship, with or without people on board, around Mars within a handful of years. Industry and government space officials consider that overly optimistic. A number of other prototypes have already been built or are in fabrication, and Mr. Musk has talked about ultimately sending as many as 100 people on a single Starship voyage.

SpaceX’s accomplishments have vaulted the company to the top tier of commercial and government launch providers, prompting intense industry interest in Starship’s development. To reach the moon or penetrate deeper into the solar system, Starship is designed to sit on top of another, giant rocket that SpaceX also is developing.

The company is focused on government and commercial launches but also plans to enter the nascent space-tourism market using the Crew Dragon capsule that has carried NASA astronauts.

It faces competition from Blue Origin, which on Wednesday said it aimed to make the first crewed launch of its New Shepard vehicle on July 20. It is auctioning a seat on the six-person flight, but didn’t disclose planned pricing for its suborbital jaunts.

Write to Doug Cameron at doug.cameron@wsj.com

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)