STARSHIP. After a first failure on Monday, Space X is trying to launch its Starship mega-rocket for the first time this Thursday, April 20, 2023. What time is the launch scheduled, why is this takeoff crucial but very risky? Here are all the answers.
[Updated April 20, 2023 3:25 PM] A new firing window opens for the test mission of Starship, the largest existing rocket in the world with a size of 120 meters (the equivalent of the first two floors of the Tower Eiffel), which is expected to make its first full liftoff at 8:28 a.m. local time or 3:28 p.m. Paris time this Thursday, April 20, 2023. A one-hour launch window has been announced by SpaceX, from the Starbase space base, in the far south of Texas in the United States. A launch that promises to be spectacular because Starship’s take-off power should be more than twice that of the Saturn V rocket of the legendary Apollo program on the Moon.
The 2nd stage of this rocket is a key element for the return of Man to the Moon since it is he who was chosen by NASA as the element to ensure the landing of its astronauts from 2025. However, the things don’t seem to be moving at the desired pace and Elon Musk has made no secret of his pessimism about this launch. The fear of the billionaire is above all the destruction of the launch pad. “Tomorrow will probably not be a success, if by that we mean reaching orbit,” he said on Monday via his Twitter account a few hours before the ultimately aborted launch. “It would surely take several months to rebuild the launch pad if we melt it down,” he added. “If we get far enough away from the launch pad before there’s a problem, I’ll consider that a success.”
Because if the rocket does not carry this time any astronaut, the rocket has no less than 33 Raptor engines to take off this important mass. The failure of one of them could in turn lead to a gigantic explosion… The flight plan is nevertheless ambitious: takeoff of the complete rocket, uncoupling of the Super Heavy launcher three minutes after takeoff, this one having to fall in Caribbean waters, then put Starship into Earth orbit before falling back into the Pacific. If Starship is well designed to become a reusable rocket, this time no landing is planned. For Elon Musk, a take-off even without orbiting would already be a success… but time is running out for the Moon.
The last test was on February 9, 2023 with a static test of the Super Heavy launch vehicle which should take astronauts to the Moon by the end of the decade aboard the Starship spacecraft. This test, which had been awaited for several months, consisted in operating all of the Raptor engines with which the launcher is equipped while keeping it on the ground. Only 31 out of 33 motors worked for the duration of the test, but Elon Musk said he was satisfied with the test and said that this power was enough to reach Earth orbit … the objective of the April 20 test 2023. The Super Heavy launcher that should become the most powerful ever used is the one that NASA has chosen to send astronauts to the Moon from the Artemis III mission. Before that, he should bring a crew of personalities into lunar orbit before bringing them back to Earth as part of the dearMoon project which should take place at the end of 2023. More ambitious, Elon Musk hopes that this rocket will one day make it possible to achieve a manned mission to Mars.
SpaceX’s Starship rocket has been expected for several years and is falling behind schedule. In September 2022, the ultra-powerful launcher successfully ignited seven of its thirty-three engines for the first time. During the following November, fourteen of them were successfully tested. Finally, on February 9, 2023, 31 of the 33 launcher engines were successfully ignited simultaneously, making it possible to envisage an orbital flight for the month of March, finally postponed to April 20, 2023. The launch could take place at 8:28 a.m. local time or 3:28 p.m. Paris time for a one-hour firing window and can be watched live on the SpaceX Youtube account below. The retransmission will start 45 minutes before takeoff, so at 2:45 p.m.:
The Starship is a rocket developed by the SpaceX company which is composed of a launcher, the Super Heavy, surmounted by the Starship spacecraft. It is on board the latter that the astronauts of the Artemis III and Artemis IV missions will land on the lunar soil.
From a performance point of view, the Starship rocket is on the way to becoming the most powerful ever used and thus dethroning NASA’s SLS launcher. The entire rocket has a total of thirty-three Raptor engines. The upper part, the Starship, is designed to be available in different versions depending on the needs.
SpaceX’s Starship rocket is the largest and most powerful ever built. This rocket is composed of an extremely powerful launcher, the Super Heavy, capable of returning to land on Earth to serve again, surmounted by a Starship vessel which is also intended to be reusable. Its unrivaled power is achieved through thirty-three Raptor engines using liquid methane as fuel.
During takeoff, the first stage, named Super Heavy, propels the rocket into the sky. Once in the upper atmosphere, it detaches from the upper part, rotates and returns to land on Earth, spreading its feet for a soft landing. For its part, the upper part consisting of the Starship vessel, turns on its engines and continues its journey in space alone.
The Starship rocket measures a total of 120 meters high and 9 meters in diameter, making it the largest rocket ever built. It thus dethrones the Saturn V rocket which sent the first astronauts to the Moon during the Apollo missions. Its size is out of all proportion to NASA’s SLS launcher, which peaks at 98 meters in height when equipped with the Orion capsule. Only the Starship, that is to say the upper part of the rocket, measures for its part 50 meters high and weighs 1,200 tons.
SpaceX has not released the total price for the construction of the Starship rocket, but we know the amount of the contract that was signed between Elon Musk’s company and NASA for the various Artemis missions that involve SpaceX. Thus, for Artemis III, NASA paid 2.89 billion dollars. For Artemis IV and the new version of the Starship spaceship, the contract amounts to 1.15 billion dollars.
In addition, the SpaceX company has unveiled the prices it hopes to be able to offer for its Starship rocket launch services. Elon Musk thus plans to break the prices of the space economy by proposing a price of 2 million dollars per flight while the SLS costs 2 billion dollars.
