The Starship, the largest and most powerful space rocket created by man has managed to take off from the Space X facilities in Boca Chica and complete its first flight. The ship, destined to send man to the Moon again in 2025 and with which the controversial South African businessman Elon Musk intends to fulfill his Martian dream, has saved its second test, after the first, carried out in April, ended with the ship exploding four minutes after takeoff.
The Starship, 121 meters high and capable of transporting 150 tons of payloadis designed to be reused, although in this test the objective was not to attempt a controlled landing, but rather to make almost a complete orbit of the Earth in an hour and a half, and end its mission by crashing into the Pacific Ocean, near Hawaii.
NASA closely follows the progress of Elon Musk, since it has planned that the Starship will be the vehicle in which its astronauts travel to reach the lunar surface in the program Artemisa III, from 2025. For this, NASA has given the South African businessman almost 3 billion dollars.
Although takeoff was scheduled for last Friday, it had to bescheduled the next day, due to the need to replace a grille fin, key to directing the rocket during flight, but especially for its landing. This Saturday, Space Only three minutes later the ship managed to take off, amidst the shouting at the Space X offices, where Elon Musk himself was on the front line following the vicissitudes of his rocket.
The Starship consists of two parts, the Super Heavy rocket, 69 meters high, and the ship that goes on top of the vehicle, also called Starship, 50 meters high, which is where people and cargo will travel. Up to 100 astronauts could be transported there., practically a colony, according to the company itself. It was precisely at the moment of the decoupling of these two parts that the explosion occurred last April. On this occasion, although it was achieved successfully, just three minutes after takeoff, the propellant also ended up exploding, although without consequences for the ship, which continued to rise until reaching an altitude of approximately 240 kilometers.