with the President-elect Donald Trump And CEO/newly appointed SpaceX efficiency jar Elon Musk Given that, SpaceX plans to launch the world's most powerful rocket today on its sixth test flight — a ground-shaking sub-orbital launch of a giant Super Heavy-Starship to evaluate critical upgrades.
What time will SpaceX Starship launch?
30-foot-wide, 397-foot-tall rocket launches from Musk's massive Boca Chica, texasThe manufacturing and testing facility on the Gulf Coast near Brownsville is targeted for 5 p.m. EST, opening a 30-minute launch window.
as with rockets Fifth test flight last monthThe primary goal of Tuesday's flight remained the same: to lift Starship out of the lower atmosphere on a sub-orbital flight to re-enter the Indian Ocean, while the Super Heavy booster launches itself back to the launch pad where the giant mechanical arms would be deployed. Will take it out of mid air.
spacex
Will Trump attend SpaceX Starship launch?
Trump is flying to South Texas to watch the Starship launch. He Posted On in the project!”
Trump mentioned the new rocket in a campaign speech on September 21 in Wilmington, North Carolina, and urged Musk to “get those rocket ships going because we want to get to Mars before the end of my term. We have to do it.” Want.”
What is different in Launch 6 from the previous 5 launches?
This time, one of Starship's methane-burning Raptor engines will be restarted in space to demonstrate the propulsion system's ability to perform critical maneuvers and future de-orbit burns.
“Engineers are testing a suite of heatshield experiments and maneuvering modifications for the ship's re-entry and descent into the Indian Ocean,” SpaceX said on its web page, adding additional propulsion system redundancy along with software and booster hardware upgrades. and is intended to increase the structural strength of the rocket. Strength.
The October test flight was the first with a successful launch pad “catch” and the first flight with Starship to reach the Indian Ocean essentially intact.
For Tuesday's flight, the launch in Texas was moved to the late afternoon to ensure daylight for video documentation.
Super Heavy-Starship Plans
The Super Heavy-Starship is the centerpiece of Musk's campaign to develop a fully reusable heavy-lift rocket, which he says is the key to making humanity “multi-planetary.” And now, with Trump's support, he may be able to begin that effort.
Shortly after winning the presidential election, Trump announced that Musk and one-time presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy would lead a new agency called the Department of Government Efficiency. The goal, Trump said in a statement, is to “eliminate government bureaucracy, reduce excess regulation, cut wasteful spending, and reorganize federal agencies.”
Musk said in the same statement: “This will shock the system and anyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people.”
SpaceX already has billions of dollars government bond and building a version of the starship to serve as a preliminary lunar lander at nasa Artemis Moon ProgramIt remains to be seen how Musk's role in the new administration may advance SpaceX's plans or how conflict-of-interest questions may be resolved.
Moving away from politics, “We are considering a serious effort to return to the Moon, and perhaps a serious effort… to send a lot of stuff and a lot of infrastructure, if not humans, to Mars in the next four years that The mission will “enable humans to reach Mars,” said Casey Dryer, director of space policy for the Planetary Society.
“Maybe not in four years, but maybe in the next 10.”
The key to those plans is the super-heavy starship.
How does a Super Heavy-Starship work?
The Super Heavy booster is powered by 33 Raptor engines that burn liquid methane and oxygen and generate more than 16 million pounds of thrust at full throttle, more than twice NASA's liftoff power. legendary saturn 5 moon rocketStarship is powered by six Raptors and will be capable of carrying astronauts, satellites and science probes.
Like the company's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, the 230-foot-long first stage is designed to be completely reusable, flying itself back to the launch pad where it can hold giant “chopsticks” boosters mounted on a pad gantry. Because it enables faster servicing, refueling and launch.
Unlike the Falcon 9, which uses a throw-away second stage, the 160-foot-long Starship is also reusable, capable of safely returning to Earth after launching satellites or carrying astronauts to the Moon. And eventually, Musk says, to Mars.
SpaceX already uses the company's Falcon 9s to transport astronauts and astronauts to the International Space Station. crew dragon NASA is building a variant of Starship to transport astronauts and astronauts back to the lunar surface in the 2026-27 timeframe.
The company also launches commercial and military satellites, is building a powerful space tug for NASA to help safely lift the International Space Station out of orbit when the program ends in 2030, and is working to provide global reach. is launching thousands of its own Starlink satellites. Internet.
“SpaceX functionally has a monopoly on access to space,” Dreier said. “Almost any asset you want to launch into space, whether you're the U.S. government or a commercial provider, a satellite company, even the European Space Agency, they're all using SpaceX rockets.”