It is often said that the third time is the charm and we could consider that on this occasion the saying has been true for SpaceX. Finally, after two partially successful attempts, Elon Musk's company has managed to complete the tests of the Starship ship successfully, without explosions involved.
The first attempt was made in April 2023. It was considered a partial success because the launch was achieved. However, it was not possible to overcome the separation phase of Starship from its first phase, Superheavy, so a controlled explosion was carried out. The trajectory is calculated taking this separation into account. If it does not occur, there may be changes in the trajectory that lead to incidents, which is why SpaceX engineers preferred to explode the ship.
The second attempt took place last November. This time the separation of the two phases was a success. Progress was made, something that was very celebrated by SpaceX. Unfortunately, 9 minutes later communications with the ship were lost due to an explosion.
This time it went further and, except for the explosion of the first stage engines on landing, everything went as planned.
SpaceX's Starship makes history
SpaceX engineers have learned from the errors generated in previous launch attempts. Therefore, this time, thanks to 17 improvements introduced in the development of the ship, the scheduled launch has been completed.
The Starship was launched at approximately 2:27 p.m. (Spanish peninsular time, 6:30 a.m. in Mexico City), from the Boca Chica space base. Then, after… .. she has landed on a scheduled basis in the Indian Ocean, so that the pieces of her can be recovered and reused to the extent possible.
Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever manufactured. At 122 meters high, it is 24 meters taller than NASA's SLS launch system. Therefore, it is expected that it can help take astronauts from lunar orbit to the satellite itself in the upcoming Artemis missions.
SpaceX has already reached the relevant agreements with NASA and the rest of the agencies participating in this program. But for phase three we will have to wait until 2023, for reasons beyond the control of Elon Musk's company. At least, we now know that Starship is in good health and is ready to do its part in returning humans to the Moon. Today's release attests to this.
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