SpaceX experienced another failure on Saturday, November 18, during the second takeoff of the Starship rocket, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. This second test flight was closely scrutinized by NASA, which is counting on this spacecraft for its return missions to the Moon.
The giant 120-meter-high rocket took off shortly after 7 a.m. (2 p.m. in Paris) from the SpaceX base in Boca Chica, in the far south of Texas, in the United States. Both stages of SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket exploded shortly after their successful separation, Elon Musk’s company announced in the live video stream of the rocket’s second test launch. The Super Heavy booster stage and its thirty-three engines, and the Starship, placed above and which gives its name to the entire rocket, experienced an “unplanned rapid disassembly” in the company’s words.
Starship’s first test flight ended in the spring with a gigantic explosion before the two stages separated. On April 20, Starship took off for the first time in its full configuration. But several engines did not work, and SpaceX deliberately blew up the rocket after four minutes.
The takeoff had propelled a cloud of dust several kilometers from the launch pad, itself heavily damaged. Pieces of concrete were catapulted under the power of the engines, and a fire broke out in a nearby regional park. The American air regulator (FAA) opened an investigation, before finally giving approval on Wednesday for a second flight.
Separation, the “riskiest” stage
Over seven months, the launch pad was rebuilt, and a water “flood” system was installed and tested. These downpours of water, discharged when the engines are started, must attenuate the acoustic waves, limiting vibrations. However, associations are separately suing the FAA, accused of having incorrectly assessed the environmental impact of the new rocket. “We fear that this second launch will once again create significant environmental damage,” Jared Margolis, lawyer for the NGO Center for Biological Diversity, told AFP.
The rocket is made up of two stages: the Super Heavy propulsion stage and its thirty-three engines, and the Starship spacecraft, placed above and which by extension gives its name to the entire rocket. During the first test, these two stages failed to separate in flight.
The separation system was therefore changed, Elon Musk explained during a conference in early October, adding that testing this system would be “the riskiest part” of the second flight. “I don’t want to raise too high hopes,” warned the SpaceX boss.
Floors designed to be reusable
For the company, the explosion of prototypes is less problematic in terms of image than it would be for NASA and its public funds, according to experts. Chaining together tests using a rapid iteration process allows it to accelerate the development of its machines.
But the development of Starship does not seem to be fast enough to match the plans of the American space agency, which has signed a contract with SpaceX. A modified version of the machine must serve as a lunar lander to place astronauts on the lunar surface for the first time since 1972. This mission, named Artemis-3, is officially planned for 2025, a date that seems increasingly unrealistic.
Beyond the Moon, Elon Musk wants to make Starship “a widespread means of transportation to any destination in the Solar System,” including Mars. Its goal is to establish an autonomous colony on the Red Planet, in order to make humanity a multiplanetary species.
If Starship’s size is “absurd,” he explains, it’s because building a “permanent base on the Moon and a city on Mars” requires carrying millions of tons of payload. But the real innovation of Starship is that it must be entirely reusable, with the two stages being designed to eventually return to their launch pad – thus reducing costs. Only the first stage of SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket is currently recovered.
Starship is both larger than NASA’s new megarocket, SLS (98 meters), which took flight for the first time a year ago, and the legendary Saturn-V, the rocket of the Apollo lunar program (111 meters).
