Elon Musk's Starship prototype makes a big impact
Elon Musk's Starship prototype makes a big impact
US entrepreneur Elon Musk has launched the latest prototype of his Starship vehicle from Texas.
Codenamed SN8, the unequipped rocket pulled away from the Boca Chica research and development facility on what had been billed as a brief flight at 12.5 km (41,000 feet).
The 50m-tall vehicle crashed on touchdown, but Musk was delighted with the magnitude of the test sortie.
Before the theft, the tech billionaire had toned down expectations, warning his fans that an accident was likely.
Nonetheless, Musk has high hopes for the Starship when it is fully developed. He says it's the future of his company SpaceX.
Starship will launch people and goods into orbit, and the Undertaker is also considering the vehicle to travel to the Moon and Mars.
The SpaceX CEO praised his team, adding that the demonstration had acquired "all the data we needed."
"March, here we are !!" he tweeted.
The Boca Chica plant has developed a range of increasingly complex prototypes. The philosophy has been to test each iteration until it fails. Sometimes explosively.
SN8 was the first to attempt high altitude suborbital flight.
The plan had been to demonstrate certain maneuvers that mimicked a stomach-faced re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, ending with a vertical return just before touchdown.
Most of these results have been achieved: a clean takeoff from the platform, a steady rise in altitude, followed by a horizontal descent. But it was when the Starship tried to get back vertical that things started to go wrong.
The vehicle entered its airstrip too quickly and quickly exploded on impact.
"The fuel manifold tank pressure was low during the landing scorch resulting in high touchdown speed and RUD," Musk explained on Twitter.
"RUD" stands for "quick and unscheduled dismantling". A crash, in other words.
Mr. Musk will quickly move on. He already has other prototypes in Boca Chica ready to take the place of SN8.
Visually, SN8 was quite different from the test articles that came before it.
The new vehicle received three of SpaceX's latest Raptor methane engines, a nose cone, and aerodynamic control surfaces - large flaps at the top and bottom.
The Starship will eventually be launched on a booster called Super Heavy.
This will feature perhaps 28 Raptors, producing over 70 meganewtons (16 million pounds) of thrust. It's much more than the mighty Apollo Saturn 5 rocket, which sent men to the moon.
The two parts of the new SpaceX system - Starship and Super Heavy Booster - will have a height of 118 m on the launch pad.
Both elements are designed to be fully reusable, allowing for propellant landings at the end of each mission.
Source:- Flash News and News Agencies