– – – – –
In his space business with the SpaceX group, Elon Musk has repeatedly tested the limits of what is technically feasible. So there were several failures in the early stages of his Falcon family, which made a name for itself as a reusable missile.
This Saturday, the second attempt, two NASA astronauts are to take off from Florida on a Falcon 9 rocket to the “ISS” space station. It would not only be the first flight of US astronauts with a US rocket since the end of the space shuttle flights in 2011, but also the 85th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2010.
Starship comes to Falcon
Musk has long been working on a successor type called Starship. Musk uses various prototypes and tests to approach the future new monster rocket.
With the recent explosion, a total of four Starship prototypes have now been destroyed in tests. That is a lot even for Elon Musk’s risk-taking experimental philosophy.
The explosion occurred shortly after a test of the new Raptor engine on the Starship model at the SpaceX space station in Boca Chica, Texas. The shiny silver test rocket was refueled with methane and liquid oxygen.
also read
– – – – –
The Starship rocket could one day, together with a huge sub-stage (Super Heavy), replace the Falcon 9 rocket now in use, along with its Dragon spacecraft capsules. Ultimately, a giant 118-meter rocket with 30 Raptor engines is planned. These Starship rockets are said to fly to the moon or Mars. Elon Musk wants to fuel the Starship rockets on flights to Mars in space.
Musk has repeatedly stated that he sees the key to technological advances in the formula “try – possibly fail – try again”. Therefore, in addition to the Starship 4 prototype that has just been destroyed, there is already the fifth model.
– .
Related