While last-minute scrubs are not uncommon, even during regular rocket launches, it is unclear why SpaceX stopped launching. Computers or flight controllers may have caught abnormal readings about the health of the rocket and stopped igniting the engines. Although the company still has the capability to conduct test launches on Wednesdays or Thursdays, SpaceX has not disclosed the reason for the delay. SpaceX has not released what day or time the company now intends to conduct the test flight. An early prototype for the Hulking Rocket Starship, the 160-foot-high spacecraft Musk proposed, he hopes will be used to drag massive satellites into Earth orbit, stop people at breakneck speeds between cities, and eventually – establish a human settlement on Mars. The company still has a long way to go to build a functional starship spacecraft. So far, it has developed eight different prototypes that can be used to test how well their steel frames work under pressure and to conduct surfboard “hop tests” that test how rocket’s beautiful engines can move a vehicle to smooth, pointing landings. Musk said the technique is essential for retrieving and reusing vehicles and for making a one-day controlled landing on the moon or Mars. The previous test aircraft of the Starship prototypes flew at less than 500 feet in the air and used only one engine. The vehicle, which will be used on SpaceX’s next starship test aircraft, the SN8, was the first company to install three engines. It will be the highest and most dangerous starship test aircraft ever. Musk tried to lower expectations, predicting in a tweet that the SN8 would have a one-third chance of landing safely on Earth. Initially, Musk said via Twitter that he would introduce the SpaceX SN8 prototype at 60,000 feet – about 11 miles – or more. This would have carried the vehicle into the stratosphere, the second layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, where weather balloons are flown and supersonic aircraft are flown. But then the company decided to target 40,000 feet, Reuters reported. However, the 40,000-foot test launch is expected to give Starship plenty of space to conduct the “landing flip maneuver”, which will allow engineers to test the vehicle’s landing capability again. An orbital plane. It is not clear why the company decided to reduce the altitude of this test aircraft, although 40,000 and 60,000 feet are still well below 62 miles, which is widely believed to mark the edge of space. The SN8 rocket cannot reach Earth’s orbit on its own anyway. The final starship design would require six rocket engines, after which the vehicle would require a separate, Hulking rocket booster called the Super Heavy, to propel the spacecraft into orbit at 17,000 miles per hour. It is not yet clear whether the company has begun development or testing of the Super Heavy Booster. For a voyage to Mars, the starship would eventually reach “escape speed” – about 25,000 miles per hour – a speed that would allow the spacecraft to move away from Earth’s gravity and travel to distant parts of our solar system. Musk founded SpaceX around his space travel aspirations, saying the Red Planet wanted to develop technology that would allow humans to settle. SpaceX’s plans for Mars migration raise a number of technical, political and ethical questions. For example, if Musk wants to work with earthly governments to establish a space colony or if he wants to create a sovereign nation, it would violate current international treaties governing human behavior in space. One of the most challenging obstacles may also be financial: Musk did not even try to guess all the cost estimates. But the starship home may have many other practical purposes. The spacecraft is capable of towing massive satellites or research telescopes into Earth’s orbit, re-delivering the International Space Station, or stopping people between cities at unprecedented speeds. At the September 2017 presentation, SpaceX said it was “capable of taking people to any other city on Earth in less than an hour.” .
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