On Thursday, SpaceX's Starship rocket
exploded just four minutes into its inaugural
test flight. Despite the mishap, space experts
and observers have praised the launch as a
success, according to Bank of America analyst
Ronald Epstein. The Starship rocket climbed
about 24 miles before blowing up, exceeding
its goal of reaching the point of maximum
mechanical stress. Although Starship did not
reach its intended destination, its potential to
deliver satellites into Earth's orbit and travel to
the Moon and Mars is still expected to drive
down costs for the industry. Furthermore, the
success of this test launch will help SpaceX
improve Starship's reliability in their goal of
making life multi-planetary.
The ultimate goal of Starship is to transport
people to Mars, but SpaceX has had a series of
test launches that met with varying degrees of
success. Thursday's launch was originally
scheduled for Monday but was postponed due
to a valve issue. With 17 million pounds of
thrust, Starship's Super Heavy rocket produces
double the thrust of NASA's Space Launch
System (SLS) and is propelled by cooled liquid
methane and liquid oxygen. It is also the tallest
rocket ever built, soaring to a height of 394
feet.
Epstein notes that a single Starship launch
could potentially carry 4,300 small satellites
into space, more than triple the number
launched in 2020. However, finding enough
satellites ready to launch at the same time
makes this unlikely in the near future.
Despite the explosion, the broader space
community considers the launch a success due
to the amount of knowledge gained. NASA
Administrator Bill Nelson praised the
achievement, stating that every great
achievement throughout history has
demanded some level of calculated risk.
Engineers at SpaceX are already analyzing
Thursday's launch in their efforts to improve
reliability.
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