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SpaceX on Saturday moved the maximum flight ready for its Starship rockets, Ship 24, to a launch in South Texas. Although a launch is not imminent this week, it can take a stand as early as April 10, the resources said.
Earlier this week, the company placed the grand first level “Super Heavy” of its launch formula on a launch stand on the platform. floor. Although those cars were stacked in the past for testing, this will be the last time they sit on the release pad before taking off.
In recent weeks, technicians have added protection to the launch stand and tower against excessive heat from the Super Heavy launch, which is powered by 33 Raptor engines. The launch vehicle will have about twice the thrust of the two toughest rockets to succeed. in orbit, NASA’s Saturn V and Space Launch System rockets.
With those paintings largely completed, attention now turns to the last major obstacle between SpaceX’s large rocket and a launch attempt: a license from the Federal Aviation Administration. While those regulatory issues are uncertain, one source said smart progress is being made toward issuing such a license in the first two weeks of April.
It also appears that, tentatively, NASA is reserving the use of its WB-57 aircraft at maximum altitude for observations of the Starship test flight on April 10 and 11. use the Starship vehicle as a lunar lander for its astronauts as a component of the Artemis Moon missions.
In the past, SpaceX conducted a hot-firing test of the first Super Heavy level in early February. At that time, 31 of the rocket’s 33 engines ignited and burned as expected. SpaceX decided its engineers had received enough knowledge of the test. to continue with a launch attempt. After that, the thruster and upper level were removed to facilitate the paints on the launch stand.
After launch, the Super Heavy rocket will fly from SpaceX’s Starbase launch site eastward over the Gulf of Mexico. For this test, the propellant will not attempt to land. After the separation of the stages, Starship’s overhead vehicle is destined to succeed in orbital speed before attempting a re-entry into Earth’s environment over the Pacific Ocean. If all goes well, it will carry out a controlled descent and landing. in the ocean just north of the Hawaiian Islands.
After an immediate test crusade in 2020 and 2021 to launch Starship prototypes, the company has been acting more cautiously at its development and test facilities in South Texas. In fact, the company has likely invested more than a billion dollars in a mass release and capture. tower for Starship and Super Heavy, as well as floor systems for mass vehicle refueling.
Because so many assets are clustered in a small domain near the Gulf of Mexico, SpaceX doesn’t need to take on the threat of destroying the infrastructure it spent more than a year building and testing. That would delay Starship’s launch crusade for months, at least. , as the domain is rebuilt. It would also likely duplicate the regulatory considerations that have been raised as a component of the Federal Aviation Administration’s procedure to make the South Texas location for experimental orbital releases transparent.
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