Monday, SpaceX plans to attempt to launch its most potent rocket yet.

 

A prototype of Starship, a huge rocket made by SpaceX, sits on a launchpad in Boca Chica, Texas in February 2022

Starship, the most potent rocket ever built and the vehicle that SpaceX hopes to use to launch astronauts to the Moon and possibly beyond, will make its first test flight on Monday.

The launch is slated to occur at 7:00 am (1200 GMT) from the expansive Texas base of Elon Musk's privately owned space firm.

If Monday's attempt is postponed, fallback times are planned for later in the week.

 

 

As part of the Artemis III mission, scheduled for late 2025 at the earliest, the US space agency NASA has chosen the Starship capsule to transport its humans to the Moon.

 

 

The first-stage Super Heavy booster rocket and a reusable capsule carrying crew and cargo make up the Starship.

The 230-foot-tall Super Heavy rocket is atop the 164-foot (50-meter) tall Starship spacecraft.

 

In February, SpaceX successfully tested the 33 Raptor engines on the Starship first-stage booster.

 

During the test-firing, also known as a static fire, the Super Heavy rocket was attached to the ground to stop it from taking off.

 

The first stage-powered rocket has never taken flight in its full configuration.

 

"Success maybe, but excitement is guaranteed!" Musk tweeted on Friday evening.

under November 2024, NASA will launch personnel to lunar orbit on its own utilising the Space Launch System (SLS), a heavy rocket that has been under development for more than ten years.

Starship is more powerful and larger than SLS.

More than twice as much thrust as the Saturn V rockets used to launch the Apollo astronauts to the Moon, it produces 17 million pounds of thrust.

 

In the future, SpaceX plans to launch a Starship into orbit, refuel it with another Starship, and then send it on its way to Mars or beyond.

 

Cost reduction is Musk's main focus with a reusable rocket. Early last year, he stated that each Starship voyage will eventually only cost "less than $10 million."

 

The Long March 9 from China, the New Glenn from Blue Origin, and the Yenisei from Russia are three more super-heavy rockets under development.

Reference: phys.org

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