The most powerful rocket launch attempt ever has been postponed for at least 48 hours. U.S. businessman Elon Musk's SpaceX corporation is responsible for the creation of the vehicle known as Starship.
The unmanned mission was called off on Monday, Apr. 17, just minutes before the planned launch from Boca Chica, Texas.
Musk stated that a frozen "pressurant valve" appears to be the root of the issue. But later this week, SpaceX might attempt another launch. Starship is intended to have nearly twice the thrust of any rocket that has ever been built and is nearly 120 meters (400 feet) high, BBC reported.
The upper stage of the vehicle is intended to be sent eastward in order to complete almost one circuit of the globe.
With Starship, Elon Musk aims to completely disrupt the rocket industry.
It is made to be fully and rapidly reusable. In the same manner that a jet airliner might travel across the Atlantic, he envisions transporting passengers and satellites into orbit several times each day.
It has been tested on short jumps before, but this would have been the first time the lower stage of the Starship had to go up with it. In February, this enormous booster, aptly dubbed Super Heavy, was launched while fastened to its launch platform. At that moment, the engines were, however, only running at half of their potential.
If things go to plan for another launch this week, SpaceX will aim for 90% thrust, meaning the stage should deliver something close to 70 meganewtons.
The 33 engines on the bottom of the methane-fueled booster will burn for two minutes and 49 seconds as Starship ascends and head down range across the Gulf, assuming all goes according to plan. After that, the rocket's two halves will separate, and the top portion, the spacecraft, will continue to move forward using its own engines for an additional six minutes and 23 seconds.
By this time, it should be traveling over the Caribbean and cruising through space more than 100km (62 miles) above the planet's surface.
SpaceX wants the Super Heavy booster to try to fly back to near the Texan coast and come down vertically, to hover just above the Gulf's waters. It will then be allowed to topple over and sink.
The ship is aiming to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere after almost a full revolution of the Earth, coming down in the Pacific just north of the Hawaiian islands. A bellyflop into the ocean is timed to occur 90 minutes after lift-off.
On Monday, Nasa, the US space agency, will be among the viewers who are most intrigued. It is providing SpaceX with about $3 billion to create a Starship variation that will be used to set foot on the moon.
Professor Garrett Reisman of astronautical engineering at the University of Southern California claims that Elon Musk has the ambition to go even deeper into the Solar System.
© 2024 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.