Elon Musk's SpaceX launched its 11th Starship rocket from Texas, USA, on Monday and landed it in the Indian Ocean. This was the last flight before the company begins a test launch of a new version of the giant rocket, equipped with additional features for missions to the Moon and Mars, Reuters reports, writes UNN.
Details
Starship, which includes the Starship upper stage mounted on its Super Heavy booster, launched at 6:23 PM CT (2:23 AM Kyiv time) from SpaceX's Starbase. After launching the Starship stage into space, Super Heavy returned for a soft landing in the Gulf of Mexico 7 minutes after liftoff, testing the landing engine configuration before exploding.
The previous mission, which took place in August, broke a series of unsuccessful tests earlier this year. Monday's flight was similar to the previous one: a batch of Starlink satellite simulators was launched again, engines were briefly restarted in space, and new heat shield tiles were tested during re-entry from space in hot weather, after which the ship landed west of Australia.
Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy stated on X that the mission was "another important step towards landing Americans on the Moon's South Pole."
Updated prototype
During future tests, SpaceX plans to launch a more advanced Starship prototype, equipped with upgrades necessary for long-duration space missions, the company announced on Monday. This includes docking adapters and other hardware changes required for orbital refueling – a complex process involving docking two Starships in orbit to transfer hundreds of tons of supercooled propellant.
The updated prototype "is truly the vehicle that can take people to the Moon and Mars," SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said at a conference in Paris last month. "So that's what we're aiming for," she noted.
Shotwell said she expects this version of Starship to be launched by the end of this year or early next year. Musk, SpaceX CEO, said he expects a mission to refuel two Starships next year, a goal NASA in 2024 had expected this year.
Refueling is one of many test tasks that must be completed before the rocket delivers humans to the lunar surface, scheduled for 2027.
To fuel one Starship with enough propellant for a lunar landing within SpaceX's proposed lunar landing plan, several Starship tankers are needed.
This is part of a contract worth over $3 billion that SpaceX won in 2021 as part of NASA's Artemis program, under which the US is trying to send humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972. The award puts SpaceX at the center of the Moon race between the US and China, which aims for its own crewed landing in 2030.
Last month, a NASA safety advisory group warned that modest progress in developing elements of the rocket's lunar lander design could set back American lunar exploration efforts by years. A test landing on the Moon's uneven surface is another top priority that SpaceX must achieve.
Starship, the most powerful rocket ever launched and much larger than SpaceX's Falcon 9 workhorse, also plays a key role in launching heavier Starlink satellites needed for the company's lucrative mobile broadband goals. In addition, it is central to Musk's vision of sending people and cargo to Mars.
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