NASA's mission to set foot on the Moon again is a little closer today: the Starship megarocket from SpaceX, Elon Musk's company, has finally reached Earth orbit and has been located at about 300 kilometers above sea level, a decisive step for the most powerful space vehicle to be operational and able to transport payloads into space. However, the ambitious test - the fourteenth - lasted just over three hours, instead of the 10 initially planned by SpaceX and, after landing in the Pacific, it exploded, leaving it engulfed in flames.
It has, therefore, been a complex flight that has left a bittersweet taste. On the one hand, it has shown that an operational Starship is getting closer, but also that there are still crucial aspects to improve and resolve to make it a reliable vehicle, up to the great plans that exist for it. Nothing less than making him one of the protagonists of the greatest feats planned for humanity: stepping on the Moon again and traveling to Mars for the first time.
The achievement of reaching Earth orbit occurred during the fourteenth test, which was carried out this Monday with a launch from the launch pad of SpaceX's Starbase complex, in Texas, next to the Gulf of Mexico.
If the end of test number 15 has been marked by the spectacular explosion of the rocket, the beginning has been full of uncertainty. One of the engines shut down earlier than expected, and during the official live broadcast, SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot initially stated that Starship would fail to reach Earth orbit. However, minutes later it rectified after receiving an update from the engineers, who confirmed that the ship could still try to perform a key ignition that would allow it to reach the planned altitude.
The objective of this Monday's test was for the ship to complete six orbits of the Earth and deploy the first batch of real satellites of the Starlink network - until now, only replicas have been used during the test program. It is, therefore, the Starship's most ambitious mission to date, and the longest, as it was expected to last 10 hours. The company had already announced that its engineers would reevaluate the development of the mission and could change the plan and order the ship to return earlier than expected, as finally happened.
At 3:54 p.m. (Spanish peninsular time), the company confirmed that the planned 26 satellites had been successfully deployed, and they had managed to establish communication with all of them. The plan envisaged that after six Earth orbits, it would land in the Pacific Ocean, west of Chile, but after shortening the mission, the ship returned to Earth at 5:57 p.m., three hours and eight minutes after takeoff. The Starship, already partially on fire, landed in an upright position but within moments it was completely enveloped in the fireball caused by the explosion.
"Congratulations SpaceX! It has been a spectacular launch that has taken the ship to orbit and each step has been handled in a safe, responsible and especially inspiring manner," NASA director Jared Isaacman said through the X social network, shortly after it was confirmed that it had reached Earth orbit. The head of the US space agency has assured that they are excited to help in any way they can and hope that Starship missions become routine.
The vehicle with which Musk wants to go to Mars
The Starship space vehicle is reusable, measures a total of just over 120 meters high and consists of two parts or stages - the SuperHeavy booster, which carries 33 Raptor engines and returns in a controlled manner to Earth, and the Starship capsule or ship. Elon Musk has conceived it for missions to Mars - his great dream - and to the Moon, both private and governmental.
In 2021, NASA chose SpaceX to develop a lunar version of the Starship capsule for the mission that plans to return US astronauts to the surface of our satellite. Currently that mission is called Artemis 4 and is scheduled for 2028 at the earliest. However, due to delays in the development of the Starship, the US agency has decided to also include in its plans the lunar module being developed by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' company, which is Musk's great competitor in space.
Both modules must be ready by 2027, when Artemis 3 is planned, a manned test mission in which the Orion ship will orbit the Earth, testing the docking with this SpaceX module and with Bezos's one, called Blue Moon [NASA has only reported that this test docking could be with the two ships or with one of the two]. Unlike the Artemis 2 mission, which was successfully completed last April, Artemis 3 will not approach the Moon, but it is crucial because its four astronauts will rehearse the key maneuvers that will make the first manned moon landing a reality next year since 1972.
The plan is for the Artemis 4 astronauts to take off aboard the Orion spacecraft and once they are in space, dock with one of the two lunar modules (which would have been previously launched aboard another rocket and supplied with fuel in orbit, a maneuver that has also never been tested). Two or more astronauts will transfer from Orion to the lunar landing module (Starship or Blue Moon), while several crew members would stay on Orion, orbiting the Moon waiting for their companions. The module will be the one that transports the chosen astronauts to the Earth's surface. Once their mission work on the lunar surface is finished, they will take off aboard the module, which will dock in lunar orbit with Orion to return together to Earth.
Bezos' lunar module is also in development, so both SpaceX and Blue Origin are immersed in a race against time to have their vehicles ready for Artemis 3. And being able to reach Earth orbit was a key step on that path.
In his initial forecasts, Elon Musk predicted that this achievement would occur in 2022, followed by the operational deployment of satellites in 2023. But it was not until April 20, 2023 when they did the first test of the space vehicle. The 13 previous test flights were restricted to suborbital space and landed after approximately one hour of flight. Until today, an orbital flight had not been attempted for reasons of safety for citizens and to learn more quickly from failures, as explained by SpaceX. After the successful thirteenth flight, the company estimated that the vehicle was ready to undertake an orbital flight.
It is estimated that SpaceX has invested around $15 billion in the Starship program.
