SpaceX’s Starship rocket, the world’s largest spacecraft for trips to the Moon and Mars, suffered a spectacular explosion just minutes after taking off from its launch pad. Nonetheless, experts and SpaceX alike have hailed the launch as a step forward in the development of the company’s space program, the latest vivid illustration of a “fail-win” business formula that serves Elon Musk’s company well.
Looking ahead, SpaceX is already making plans for a new launch in the coming months, demonstrating the company’s commitment to innovation and willingness to take risks to push the boundaries of what’s possible in the world of space exploration. .
So rather than view the fiery disintegration of Musk’s colossal next-generation Starship system as a setback, experts said the dramatic loss of the rocket would help speed up the vehicle’s development.
Starship rocket test, destined to “fail”
And what many may not have known: SpaceX confirmed previous suspicions that the ship, after falling out of control at an altitude of about 32 kilometers while mounted on its Super Heavy rocket booster, could have activated its flight termination system. both in the propeller and in the ship.
In other words, SpaceX blew up its own starship and Super Heavy booster four minutes into the flight as a precaution because things were not going according to plan. In fact, Musk had already tempered expectations before launch, saying he was unlikely to reach orbit on the first try.
SpaceX acknowledged that several of the Super Heavy’s 33 powerful Raport engines malfunctioned during the climb and that the booster rocket and the Starship failed to separate as planned before the ill-fated flight was discontinued.
But SpaceX executives, including Musk — founder, CEO and chief engineer of the California-based rocket company — praised the test flight for achieving the primary goal of getting the vehicle off the ground while also having provided a wealth of data that will advance the development of Starship.
“Classic SpaceX flop”
According to Reuters, which consulted experts in aerospace engineering and planetary science, several agreed that the test flight brought benefits.
“This is a classic SpaceX flop”said Garrett Reisman, a professor of astronautical engineering at the University of Southern California, a former NASA astronaut and a senior adviser to SpaceX.
Reisman called the Starship test flight a hallmark of a SpaceX strategy that sets Musk’s company apart from traditional aerospace companies and even NASA by “this acceptance of failure when the consequences of failure are low.”
There were no astronauts on board for the uncrewed flight, and the rocket was flown almost entirely over water from the Gulf Coast Starbase facility in South Texas to prevent possible injury or property damage on land from falling objects. debris.
“Although that rocket costs a lot of money, what really costs a lot of money is people’s salaries,” Reisman told Reuters in an interview hours after the launch on Thursday.
Reisman said SpaceX saves more money in the long run, and takes less time to identify and fix engineering flaws by taking more risk in the development process rather than keeping “a great team working for years and years trying to get it perfect.” before even testing it.”
“I would say that the time frame for transporting people (aboard the Starship) is expedited right now compared to what it was a couple of hours ago,” Reisman said.
“The biggest rocket that humanity has tried to build”
For her part, planetary scientist Tanya Harrison, a fellow at the University of British Columbia’s Outer Space Institute, said clearing the launch tower and climbing through a critical point known as maximum aerodynamic pressure were major feats in the first flight of such a large and complex launch system.
“It’s part of the testing process,” he said in an interview. “A lot of accidents happen when trying to design a new rocket. The fact that it was released made a lot of people happy.”
He said the risks of a single flight test were small compared to the ambitious achievements at stake.
“This is the biggest rocket that humanity has tried to build”he claimed, adding that it is designed to carry “orders of magnitude” more cargo and people to and from deep space than any other existing spacecraft.
SpaceX interplanetary exploration goals
According to Harrison, Starship will carry many tons of rock, as well as dozens of astronauts and entire laboratory facilities to and from the Moon and Mars. This is in contrast to NASA’s current mission to retrieve samples of Martian soil and minerals measured in kilograms with its Mars Perseverance rover.
SpaceX’s Starship fully reusable rocket system is crucial to the company’s interplanetary exploration goals and its short-term launch business, according to Musk. Commercial satellites, scientific telescopes and, in the future, space tourists are expected to use the reusable rocket system for their journeys into space.
Citing SpaceX’s rapid pace of development since its founding in 2002, which has seen it fly dozens of commercial missions a year with its Falcon 9 rocket, its low-Earth orbit workhorse, Harrison said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if we would have humans on Mars with Starship in the next decade.”
FEW (Reuters, AFP, EFE)
