SpaceX Starship Booster 'Probably' Returning to Pad After Explosion—Elon Musk

New York (CNN Business)An explosion on the launch pad during a test of a massive SpaceX rocket prototype was "actually not good" and the visitor is assessing the damage, company CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter.

The rocket, an early version of the vehicle SpaceX is calling Starship, could be seen lighting its engines equally it remained anchored to its South Texas launch pad in footage captured Monday by NASA Spaceflight, a media outlet with no relation to the space bureau. Then, a blaze of uncontrolled flames erupted from the engines, followed by plumes of gray smoke. After the smoke cleared, no visible signs of external damage could be seen from NASA Spaceflight's livestream.

Musk has long described Starship as the linchpin for SpaceX'south stated goal of getting the offset humans to Mars. He's talked well-nigh the vehicle for years, and laid out SpaceX'south evolving plans for its design through several public speaking engagements over the past decade.

Last twelvemonth, SpaceX also won a $iii billion NASA contract to apply Starship for the space agency's plans to render astronauts to the surface of the moon for the get-go time in v decades.

Musk explained what he thought went wrong during the engine test in a tweet Mon.

"Cryogenic fuel is an added claiming," said Musk, referring to the propellant that SpaceX plans to ability Starship that must be kept at extremely cold temperatures, "as information technology evaporates to create fuel-air explosion run a risk in a partially oxygen atmosphere like Earth...More later."

Essentially, the fuels selected for the rocket have a higher risk of fiery mishap when they mix with gases already in the ambient air.

The Starship consists of two parts: a big, bullet-shaped spacecraft that'southward intended to house dozens of people or large satellites, which sits atop and a towering rocket booster that'south designed to booty the spacecraft to orbit.

It was a rocket booster, which is slated to accept more than than 30 rocket engines and exert more thrust than whatsoever rocket humans take e'er launched, involved in Monday'due south test. For comparison, the Saturn Five, which took the NASA Apollo missions to the moon more than than fifty years ago, used five larger main engines on its first stage.

SpaceX has been preparing to launch a Starship booster and spacecraft on an orbital launch for the outset time this twelvemonth, following near a dozen test flights the company had put just the spacecraft portion of Starship through in the by few years. The spacecraft tests went from hopping a few feet off the basis to soaring more than thirty,000 feet. A few high-altitude tests ended in explosions as the exam rockets smashed back into the footing. But its latest exam flight of the Starship spacecraft, in May 2021, managed to land upright.

SpaceX did not immediately return a request for comment, including specifically whether or non the latest incident would delay the company's flight schedule.

SpaceX and Musk have repeatedly stated that they view failed rocket tests as a good thing, giving engineers the chance to quickly build, examination and change a rocket design as needed rather than taking a slower approach that might guarantee fewer testing mishaps.

Last calendar month, subsequently more than a yr of waiting, the Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches, granted SpaceX environmental approval to launch Starship to orbit out of South Texas. But the FAA is still reviewing the company'southward application for an overall launch license.

"SpaceX'south application must meet FAA rubber, chance and financial responsibility requirements," the FAA said in a statement on the matter last month. "The FAA will make a license determination only afterward SpaceX provides all outstanding data and the bureau can fully analyze it."

The agency declined to say when a launch license decision is expected.

Meanwhile, SpaceX is already building a second Starship launch site at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the majority of US rocket launches take flight.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/12/tech/spacex-starship-test-boca-chica-scn/index.html

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