Elon Musk Starship launch update
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| Starship Launch Prototype |
Elon Musk on Wednesday gave an update on the upcoming Starship program. Starship is the most anticipated rocket of this decade. It is the most powerful rocket and it will make humans interplanetary.
Until now 9 Starship prototypes have been tested for suborbital flight and the latest Starship SN15 succeeded with flying colors in May 2021. After this, there weren't many starship tests. But Elon on Wednesday give a new Starship update timeline
Starship Orbital launch Update
He said they have completed the construction of the first orbital Starship and booster. The launchpad and launch tower construction will end later this month.
According to the US government, the environment review of Starship will be done by 31st December 2021; and Starship will have its first orbital flight attempt in January 2022.
Also, this totally depends on testing and regulatory approval by the FAA authorities. He also mentioned that this flight attempt will most likely not be successful but Elon assures that they will learn a lot from this first attempt.
Here's a look at Starship's Massive Engines:
12 million pounds of thrust at liftoff pic.twitter.com/4ArkgU4Vff
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 17, 2021
Starship Lunar Lander Update
Elon Musk also said that they are developing a lunar Lander Starship to benefit NASA in their upcoming Artemis moon mission. It is also to note that Starship will serve as a permanent Lunar Research Station similar to how there are research stations in Antarctica.
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Starship Lunar Lander |
SpaceX International Collaboration
When asked if SpaceX is collaborating with any companies internationally, Elon Musk said Starship is mostly (about 90%) funded by SpaceX alone.
Even if SpaceX has a 2.9 billion dollars contract from NASA to develop Starship for its lunar Lander mission. He said they won't be looking into any external funding for their Starship program.
Starship Mars landing Timeline
About the Mars landing timeline, Elon said a dozen Starship orbital test launches will take place in 2022. SpaceX is also planning on having a transfer propellant depot in the low Earth orbit. Then customer payload launches will happen in 2023.
After this, there will be two or three uncrewed landings on Mars. These will be mostly scientific missions.
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Starship Mars landing |
They expect to have a perfectly crewed mission in 2026. Also, this depends on successful testing and regulatory approval from the FAA.
SpaceX is not going to send a single Starship, they are planning to send about 100 starships to Mars once the launch window opens
Check Elon Musk's presentation video here:
Conclusion
When Starship becomes operational, it will be the Holy Grail of Rockets. SpaceX will be able to send a huge number of starships to Mars
What do you think about Starship? Will it reach Mars? Tell us in the comments
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