SpaceX’s giant rocket to Mars and beyond could take its first orbital flight sometime within the next year — but questions around where it will fly from caused delays in the company’s planning applications. Now, we know that the company may launch Starships from either the SpaceX Starbase in Texas (which has prompted controversy) or NASA’s Cape Canaveral in Florida.
On Monday, SpaceX successfully fired seven engines on the Starship Super Heavy prototype’s “Booster 7” at its Boca Chica, Texas Starbase. This was the highest number of their new Raptor engines ever tested simultaneously, marking another crucial step toward Starship’s deployment.
The fully-reusable ship could be the key to achieving CEO Elon Musk’s dream of a city on Mars, but it will depend on how it performs in upcoming tests. A flight to orbit, previously expected to take place in 2021, could now take place sometime within the next year, Musk said on Twitter last month.
First unveiled in 2017 under the name “BFR,” the Starship is a fully reusable vessel designed to send over 100 tons or 100 people into space at a time. It can replace the firm’s existing rockets like the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, while also taking on more ambitious goals like sending humans to Mars and beyond.
SpaceX is not waiting around to start these missions. The firm is aiming to send the first humans to Mars by 2029, before establishing a self-sustaining city on Mars as early as 2050.
It could all start with the Starship — and at around 400 feet when paired with the Super Heavy booster that lifts it away from the Earth, this thing is huge. It greatly eclipses the Falcon 9, which measured less than 230 feet tall. It’s also extremely powerful, with lift-off thrust of 16 million pounds. If successful, it will become the tallest and most powerful rocket ever. For comparison, the current record holder on both counts is NASA’s Saturn V, which measured 363 feet tall and offered 7.6 million pounds of thrust at launch.
SpaceX Starship orbital flight: what is the plan?
In May 2021, a document from the Federal Communications Commission revealed the plan for the first flight.
It claimed that the ship will take off from the firm’s Starbase, Texas, launch facility. SpaceX has gradually developed the facility, located in Boca Chica, to make it into a fully-fledged spaceport — including a tiki bar. But more recently, SpaceX has also built up a facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, another possible launch location.
Around two minutes after liftoff, at 171 seconds, the Super Heavy booster will separate from the Starship. The ship will continue to complete a targeted landing around 60 miles northwest of the coast of Hawaii. The whole flight will last around 90 minutes.
SpaceX will not land the booster or the ship on land. The booster will land in the Gulf of Mexico, around 20 miles offshore, at 495 seconds or eight minutes after launch. The ship will complete a targeted powered landing in the sea.
Meanwhile, Musk would consider flying out of Cape Canaveral if the flight is delayed by four to eight months at Starbase.
Cape Canaveral has served SpaceX well. It has launched 83 missions from Space Launch Complex 40, and 35 missions from Launch Complex 39A. The latter pad, which sent humans to the Moon back in 1969, would likely host the orbital flight if SpaceX can’t receive permissions for Starbase.
As of last week, SpaceX was nearly done constructing the Starship launch integration tower (Mechazilla) at Cape Canaveral, from which the massive vehicle will blast off into space.
SpaceX Starship: when is the orbital flight?
It’s unclear, but the latest word from Musk as of August 2 is that Starship will launch “probably between 1 and 12 months from now.”
In August 2021, SpaceX successfully stacked the Starship ship on top of the Super Heavy booster in preparation for the orbital flight.
Underneath the ship is the launch platform. This giant ring-shaped structure is used to support the ship during the upcoming launch.
SpaceX Starship orbital flight: which ship will it use?
SpaxeX will use the Super Heavy Booster 7 to launch a a six-engine Starship prototype called Ship 24, according to Space.com. Booster 7 will plop into the Gulf of Mexico not long after liftoff, and the Starship will makes it way around Earth and land in the Pacific Ocean near Kauai.
This version of the company’s new engine will offer around half a million pounds of thrust at sea level. As the booster is expected to use 33 Raptor engines, the Starship’s booster will offer a total sea-level thrust of around 16 million pounds.
Credit: SpaceX Starship orbital flight: Elon Musk's giant rocket just passed another critical test (msn.com)
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