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The giant Starship rocket of SpaceX, intended for trips to the moon and Mars, exploded shortly after its launch from Texas, Thursday, on its first test orbital flight. It is not known until now, the reasons that led to the explosion of “Starship”, whose launch is mainly intended to collect the largest amount of data to benefit from it in the following models.
Show a company broadcastSpaceX” Explosion Starship missile Its giant, dedicated to trips to the moon and Mars, shortly after its launch from Texas, Thursday, on its first experimental orbital flight?
This explosion does not constitute a failure for the company owned by billionaire Elon Musk, as the rocket successfully launched from its launch pad, which originally represented a great success for SpaceX.
Musk congratulated his company’s teams after the rocket took off, promising to conduct a new test “in a few months.”
He tweeted, “Congratulations to the SpaceX teams on this amazing first experiment!”, adding, “We learned a lot for the next test that we will be conducting in a few months.”
The black and silver high-altitude missile separated 120 meters from its launch base for about an hour 8:30 am local time (13:30 GMT), coinciding with cries of joy released by the employees of “SpaceX”.
The expected rocket took off from the “Starbase” space base in the far south of the US state of Texas.
It is not known until now, the reasons that led to the “Starship” explosion, whose launch aims primarily to collect the largest amount of data to benefit from it in the following models.
On Monday, SpaceX made a first attempt to launch the rocket, but it was postponed due to a technical problem that arose in the last minutes of preparations.
“This is the first flight of a very large and complex rocket,” said SpaceX chief Elon Musk, noting that this test was “fraught with great risks.”
The largest rocket in the world
Starship is tall 120 meters longer than NASA’s new giant SLS rocket (98 meters), which was launched on a first mission in November, and from the Saturn missile 5(111 meters) for the Apollo missions.
The Starship is also supposed to have a take-off power twice as strong as the SLS and Saturn. 5Which makes it the most powerful missile in the world.
No test flight of the black and silver missile with its two layers has been conducted before, including the first, which bears the name “Super Heavy” and is equipped with33 drive at least.
Previously conducted flights were limited to the “Starship” vehicle, which is the second layer of the rocket, as suborbital test flights were carried out (up to a height of about ten kilometers).
The US space agency “NASA” had chosen this vehicle to transport its astronauts to the moon during the “Artemis” mission 3which is scheduled to be officially launched next year 2025.
NASA President Bill Nelson congratulated SpaceX, tweeting that “every great achievement in history required a certain level of calculated risk,” saying he was “looking forward to the next test.”
An independent colony on Mars
Elon Musk had been keen to moderate expectations, saying that the rocket’s arrival in orbit on the first attempt was unlikely.
He expressed his hope that the launch pad would not be destroyed if the “Super Heavy” engines exploded on takeoff.
“If this happens and the launch platform is destroyed, it will take several months to rebuild,” he said, adding, “If the missile moved far enough from the platform before any problem was recorded, we will consider this a success.”
As for the “Starship” vehicle, it was supposed to return to Earth by means of a brake missile. And “Starship” has already undergone two years of testing 2020 And2021 It ended in explosions, before finally succeeding in landing safely.
Elon Musk’s strategy of producing an entirely reusable rocket aims to provide a low price. He said each trip for the vehicle could only cost “a few million” dollars.
Musk believes that humans may need hundreds of “Starship” missiles to reach other planets. His ultimate goal is to establish an independent colony on Mars.
France 24/AFP
