SpaceX launched its enormous Starship into orbit for the first time Monday and successfully delivered the most advanced Starlinks yet, but decided to cut short the flight.<\/p>\n
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SpaceX said the spacecraft would reenter over the Pacific and splash down north of Hawaii three hours after blasting off from Texas. The company had been aiming for a 10-hour flight, spanning six full laps around Earth, to prove its readiness for NASA\u2019s Artemis moon program.<\/p>\n
The spacecraft almost didn\u2019t make it to orbit after one of its engines shut down too soon. But with everything else working well and the bad engine no longer needed, flight controllers decided after several tense minutes to proceed as planned.<\/p>\n
\u201cStarship is orbital,\u201d Mission Control announced to cheers.<\/p>\n
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman congratulated SpaceX on reaching orbit and \u201cmanaging every step in a safe, responsible and especially inspirational way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rocket carries 26 of Musk\u2019s most advanced Starlink satellites<\/h4>\n
Founder Elon Musk\u2019s showpiece rocket \u2014 the biggest and most powerful ever built \u2014 carried 26 of the latest and most advanced Starlink satellites to join the 11,000 older models already providing internet service. They popped out of the spacecraft one by one, drawing more cheers from the SpaceX crowds looking on from the launch site at Starbase, Texas.<\/p>\n
The decision to end the flight early came soon afterward. No reason was provided.<\/p>\n
It was Starship\u2019s 14th full-scale launch from Texas\u2019 southern tip in three years. The earlier test flights ventured no farther than the Indian Ocean halfway around the world, often crashing in flames and briefly skimming space.<\/p>\n
This time, SpaceX was intent on circling the globe from an altitude of 170 miles (275 kilometers) \u2014 not just once but six times over almost 10 hours, ending with a Pacific splashdown near Chile. While Starship achieved the proper orbit zipping along at 17,500 mph (28,000 kph), flight controllers opted to play it safe and bring it back several hours sooner, after just a couple laps.<\/p>\n
The first-stage booster was never meant to return to the Starbase launch site either, instead dropping into the Gulf of Mexico within minutes of the morning liftoff.<\/p>\n
SpaceX wants to ensure that everything works before flying Starship back to Starbase. If the spacecraft breaks apart over land and rains debris onto people, \u201cour popularity would diminish very rapidly,\u201d Musk said at a business summit earlier this month. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re being extremely cautious here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Depending on the findings from Monday\u2019s orbital debut, the next Starship could return to the launch pad with giant mechanical arms grabbing the hovering spacecraft. If the catch works \u2014 Musk gives it even or slightly better odds \u2014 then SpaceX will refly the spacecraft by year\u2019s end or early next year.<\/p>\n
The 407-foot (124-meter) rocket was designed from the start to be fully reusable \u2014 a key to lowering launch costs. SpaceX managed to salvage the last Starship from the Indian Ocean in July. Engineers modified the newly launched Starship\u2019s heat shield based on hands-on inspections from the recovered spacecraft, which is being tugged back to Starbase.<\/p>\n
SpaceX wants Starship to be certified for orbital flight<\/h4>\n
SpaceX is pressing hard to certify Starship for orbital flight, a vital step toward moon and Mars travel.<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s Artemis III mission is coming up as soon as next summer, a triple-launch docking exercise in orbit around Earth between an Orion capsule full of astronauts and competing lunar landers. Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Moon will blast off first, then Orion \u2014 which will close in for a linkup \u2014 then Musk\u2019s Starship for a docking with Orion once Blue Moon is unleashed.<\/p>\n
The next mission \u2014 Artemis IV slated for no sooner than 2028 \u2014 would have astronauts landing on the moon in either Blue Moon or Starship, whichever is ready first. Subsequent moonshots will alternate between the two billionaires\u2019 landers.<\/p>\n
Musk originally developed Starship for Mars, intending to launch scores of them with the red planet\u2019s first settlers. For now, he plans to focus on the moon and use Starship to haul satellites into orbit by the truckload, phasing out the company\u2019s frailer Falcon 9 rocket within several years. A second Starship launch site is nearing completion at Florida\u2019s Kennedy Space Center and a third is planned for Louisiana.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Starship #reaches #orbit #time #SpaceX #cut #planned #10hour #trip #hours<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SpaceX launched its enormous S… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8589,2772,372,3463,888,8588,3995,878,2775,5934,573,5868,14,5074],"class_list":["post-5509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-10hour","tag-aerospace","tag-cut","tag-hours","tag-nasa","tag-orbit","tag-planned","tag-reaches","tag-space","tag-space-travel","tag-spacex","tag-starship","tag-time","tag-trip"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/p>\n