After it scrubbed the highly anticipated test flight of the Starship rocket earlier today, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation has announced a new launch date for the test. The company's test flight attempt saw dozens of people flood to Boca Chica, Texas, to see the historical event, which aims to fly the world's biggest rocket to near orbit by using an unprecedented 33 engines for the first time in human history. SpaceX made the revelation in a Twitter post as it shared that the next Starship test flight will take place on Thursday or on the 20th of April.
SpaceX Moves Forward In Less Than A Day By Announcing New Date For Starship Test Flight
SpaceX had started fuelling the massive Starship rocket hours before its launch time today, even though it had yet to conduct a wet dress rehearsal of the rocket. This rehearsal includes filling its tanks with methane and liquid oxygen to test the different pressurization and other systems that make up the rocket and the ground systems.
The date is one of SpaceX chief Mr. Elon Musk's favorites due to its connotation related to the cannabis counterculture. Mr. Musk has repeatedly hinted that the Starship rocket might make its first test flight on 4/20 - or the 20th of the year's fourth month. Now, it seems that Mr. Musk's 'premonition' has come true, as in a Twitter post just moments back, SpaceX shared:
Teams are working towards Thursday, April 20 for the first flight test of a fully integrated Starship and Super Heavy rocket
SpaceX's launch attempt today came in doubt roughly seventeen minutes before launch, as teams detected a pressurization problem with the rocket - leading the flight director to analyze the situation to decide whether a scrub was in play.
Then, close to eight minutes later, the flight director decided to scrub the launch but also made the decision to keep the countdown going until the last moment to mark the rocket and the test's first wet dress rehearsal. SpaceX is limited to a single Starship launch according to conditions outlined in the license that it secured from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Therefore, should a test fail, the company will likely have to wait for quite a while before it receives approval from the FAA for another test. At the same time, any anomaly will also require significant investigation, mainly due to Starship's size and difficulty analyzing debris and data after an accident.
At the same time, SpaceX's future is leveraged on Starship. The rocket is central to the firm's plans to launch its second generation Starlink satellites as it races to further its commanding lead over other satellite firms, such as Amazon's Kuiper decision to build a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite internet constellation.
Additionally, Starship is also crucial to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s Artemis program since it is the only spaceship contracted to land humans on the lunar surface. The Starship upper stage was selected by NASA in 2021 and is due to make a test demonstration as well, according to the contract.
Refference- https://wccftech.com
0 Comments