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In the late afternoon of Wednesday, December 9 (it was night in Italy), the tranquility of the coastal area of Boca Chica, in South Texas, was interrupted by the thunderous explosion of a spaceship as tall as a building. 16-story ship that crashed to the ground: there was no crew on board and no one was injured. The incident was the latest part of a long-awaited test conducted by SpaceX, billionaire Elon Musk’s American space company, to test the capabilities of “Starship,” his new spacecraft that should one day be used to travel to the Moon and Mars. Apart from the final explosive, the test allowed to collect a large amount of data and information to carry out the project.
SpaceX has been working on Starship for about 8 years, but testing with the first prototypes only started in March of last year. Seen from a distance, the spacecraft looks like a silo for storing grain, while up close it resembles the shape of Tin Tin’s spaceship in the comic. Lunar target.
50 meters
In its final version, Starship is expected to be one of the largest spacecraft ever made, with a diameter of about 30 feet and a height of 50 feet. The plans call for it to have the ability to move autonomously through space thanks to six huge methane engines, which can also be used to land the spacecraft vertically on Earth or other celestial bodies, such as the Moon and Mars.
Raptor engines in the configuration for the space environment, left, and for use in the atmosphere (SpaceX)
To start from our planet and reach orbit, Starship will receive a boost from Super Heavy, a rocket of another 72 meters still in development. Upon reaching orbit, the launcher will return to Earth to be reused, while Starship will continue its journey into space.
Starship, above, linked to Super Heavy (SpaceX)
The test conducted yesterday at Boca Chica was a very simplified version of SpaceX’s final plans. The prototype used, called SN8, was made of hollow stainless steel, except for the fuel to power the three engines at its base (for the test it was not necessary to have the configuration with six engines as it will be in the future). However, it was the first time that SpaceX experimented with a prototype with a shape and size very close to those envisaged by the projects. The predecessors were lower cylinders, without the lateral wings (flaps) and the nose (the truncated cone at the top).
SN8 in the days leading up to the experimental launch (SpaceX)
Launching
With the launch zone cleared at the test base in Texas, SpaceX technicians carried out a series of checks, firing up the spacecraft’s engines at 4:45 p.m. local time, 11:45 p.m. in Italy. The three Raptor engines gave the necessary thrust to the prototype – lighter than the final model that the Super Heavy will need to have more power to reach orbit – which broke off the ground reaching a maximum height of 12,500 meters.
The ascent was carried out without particular problems: if after a while one of the three Raptors turned off, followed by the stop of a second engine. When the target of 12,500 meters was reached, the third engine also stopped and the SN8 went from a vertical to a horizontal position. This allowed SpaceX technicians to verify the prototype’s ability to glide to slow its descent to the ground, a characteristic that the final model of the spacecraft must have.
Shortly before reaching the area from which it was launched, the SN8 restarted its engines and returned to the vertical position, but did not brake enough to make a controlled vertical landing due to a pressure problem in one of the tanks. . The prototype spacecraft crashed to the ground and exploded creating a large ball of fire. As the smoke from the explosion cleared, it became apparent that very little of the prototype was left.
“Exit”
Despite the explosive ending, SpaceX rated the test a success and so did Elon Musk on Twitter, reporting that he had achieved most of the test goals.
Successful climb, switch to header tanks and precise flap control to the landing point! https://t.co/IIraiESg5M
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2020
In recent days, SpaceX had anticipated that getting its prototype to the ground was only part of the experiment, and not even the most important. The objective was to verify the reliability of the engines, the tightness of the systems and the aerodynamics of the SN8, in view of its future evolutions that will lead to the construction of the definitive Starship model. Musk himself had estimated that there was a one in three chance of success, because a lot of things should have gone well.
Probably 1/3 chance to complete all mission objectives
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 8, 2020
Prototypes
As the name suggests, the SN8 was the eighth prototype SpaceX built to test its new spacecraft. The previous ones were smaller and with different shapes than those imagined for the final version of Starship. The tests also involved short-range launches, with maximum altitudes around 150 meters high. Yesterday’s testing brought the prototype to 12,500 meters, roughly the altitude at which a passenger jet flies, but still a long way from the roughly 100 kilometers altitude beyond which (conventionally) Space starts.
SpaceX had planned to lose SN8 during the experimental flight and also for this reason already has two other prototypes, SN9 and SN10 in the works to be used in new tests. Having fixed the launch area in Boca Chica, new experimental launches could be made in a few weeks.
And now?
Despite the progress made in the past year, the future of Starship still seems uncertain compared to other SpaceX activities. Using its Falcon 9s, now highly reliable reusable rockets, the space company conducts a large number of launches each year to transport satellites into orbit, supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) and for a few months to the astronauts of the Station’s crews. . Musk believes that the Falcon 9 is now a mature system and for this reason he is concentrating development activities on Startship, which could initially be used for the unmanned transport of satellites and other materials in orbit.
Musk’s ultimate goal remains to employ Starship to initiate the colonization of Mars, but the goal is extremely ambitious and will require a lot of work before it can be achieved, and likely testing some spacecraft systems on a celestial body. closer to Earth, like the Moon. In this regard, NASA’s plans to bring crews back to our natural satellite through the Artemis space program could help Musk.
SpaceX could provide NASA with resources and technologies for lunar travel by leveraging Starship. The US space agency also has strong business relationships with SpaceX and intends to achieve Artemis’s goals by outsourcing a large part of the project to individuals. The plans to return to the moon, however, stem from the ambitions of the Trump presidency, now in its final weeks. President-elect Joe Biden’s plans for lunar and space exploration in general are still unclear, but the arrival of new executives at NASA signaled by the new administration could lead to changes in the program.
In addition to continuing tests around Starship, SpaceX has also begun construction of the Super Heavy, the other component of its launch system for the large spacecraft. It is not yet clear when the pitcher will be ready for his first test, although Musk would like to shorten the time. A year ago, he said that a Starship’s first orbital test flight could be completed in six months. Musk is known for making predictions much tighter than reality, and even on that occasion he did not deny himself. However, the recent test is an important step forward in the development of your new spacecraft.
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