SpaceX: new orbital test for the Starship rocket
The launch vehicle aims to reach Earth orbit and deploy 26 Starlink satellites in a 10-hour mission.
Quick Look
- Three years after its first flight, SpaceX's Starship rocket attempts to enter Earth orbit.
- The 10-hour mission features the deployment of 26 Starlink satellites and tests for future orbital refueling, marking a crucial phase for missions to Mars.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
SpaceX began flying Starship in its full configuration in 2023. The project aims to make the rocket fully reusable for missions to the Moon and Mars.
Three years after its first test flight, SpaceX's Starship rocket will attempt to enter Earth orbit, a key step in the development of the giant launch vehicle designed for future missions to the Moon and Mars.
After the highly significant stock market listing last June, SpaceX, Elon Musk's company, aims to accelerate the program with the 14th test flight, characterized by particularly ambitious objectives.
The test, which should last about 10 hours, involves the experimental rocket's upper stage reaching Earth orbit and deploying 26 new generation Starlink satellites there, assuming everything goes according to plan.
After several years of development and testing in Texas, SpaceX began flying the rocket in its full configuration in 2023, deliberately following safer and less demanding suborbital trajectories. Numerous changes have been made to the black and silver giant, the largest and most powerful object ever flown.
However, enormous technical challenges remain before Starship, which Musk aims to make fully reusable, can be considered ready for commercial flights or to reach the Moon or Mars. With this new test, SpaceX hopes to usher in an "exciting new phase" of development, which will include, among other things, tests for refueling the rocket in orbit. The spacecraft, launched today on a suborbital trajectory and, if all systems function correctly, will perform a second burn to reach orbit.
“It's the hardest part,” because it requires “larger forces and more complex calculations,” said Kathleen Curlee, a senior analyst at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology. To reach the necessary altitude and speed, "the rocket has to do different things when subjected to different levels of gravity," he told AFP. In this flight, SpaceX aims to reach a circular orbit about 275 kilometers (171 miles) above Earth's surface, which requires a speed of about 28,000 kilometers per hour. If successful, the spacecraft will then attempt to deploy satellites designed to expand the company's already enormous constellation of Internet access satellites.
What to Watch
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
Attempt to refuel the rocket in orbit on future missions.
Likely · Within months
Open Questions
- Will the rocket successfully complete its second in-orbit burn?
- Will the deployment of the 26 Starlink satellites go smoothly?
