Home » Technology » The surreal images of the Starship flying for the first time serve as wallpaper

The surreal images of the Starship flying for the first time serve as wallpaper


Illustration for the article entitled
Photo: SpaceX

Is it a giant lighter? A flying water tank? An upside down lightsaber? The answer might surprise you if you are not aware of the latest events in Boca Chica. It is the spaceship (or a prototype of the spaceship) with which the billionaire Elon Musk wants to take us to Mars.

After three implosions and a big bangStarship prototype number 5 made the first 150-meter flight since the Starhopper (a much smaller and lighter prototype) took to the skies on Tuesday.

The SN5 is an incomplete test vehicle, which worsens the looks ramshackle of the Starship: a cheap ship that is manufactured in series, in the open air, with stainless steel coils and more or less rudimentary techniques.

The 30-meter prototype did not have the upper cone and took off without control surfaces (the movable ailerons that will allow subsequent prototypes to stabilize during the landing maneuver). It carried two 20-ton steel coils on top (as ballast to compensate for the lack of fuel) and had a single Raptor engine (the SN27) in an asymmetrical position.

It was not a problem: the ship controlled the flight perfectly and moved towards the landing platform automatically unfolding its six legs before touching the ground (Elon Musk says that the final legs will be longer).

But the flight was not perfect. There were at least two incidents that SpaceX has not mentioned, but which can be seen in the images. At the time of ignition and takeoff, part of the ground facilities were blown up (although they did not look like large pieces, not even from the ship itself). Then the chamber inside the thruster revealed that the Raptor engine was on fire before landing, which on a longer flight could have been a problem.

In any case, it was a major milestone for SpaceX and the images it leaves us are worthy of wallpaper, if only for the surreal look of the Starship rising over the Texas coast.

More flights are coming soon: the SN6 prototype is already assembled, the SN7 was sacrificed for a pressurization test, and the SN8 has started production. The SN8 will have to keep an eye on it: it will be the first prototype made of 304L steel (a better alloy than the current prototypes) and will come with three Raptor engines and the aerodynamic surfaces necessary to make flights of up to 20 km, a last jump before suborbital flights.

Once tested, the Starship will become the first fully reusable rocket ship, a concept that opens the door to 30-minute intercontinental flights and which (in combination with a Super Heavy thruster) could make space exploration cheaper than ever before.

Illustration for the article entitled
Photo: SpaceX

Illustration for the article entitled
Photo: SpaceX

Illustration for the article entitled
Photo: SpaceX

Illustration for the article entitled
Photo: SpaceX

Illustration for the article entitled
Photo: SpaceX

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.