Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, is usually a man who “makes history.” He did not Much Do it this week – but at least he did the evening news.
In recent years, SpaceX has placed the first single-built and operated spacecraft in orbit around the Earth. First built alone, the orbiting class rocket was launched into space and then landed its booster back on Earth (later on a ship at sea). Its Balkan heavy rocket, launched in 2018, is the largest, most powerful operational rocket on the planet.
But now SpaceX and Musk want to fly something even bigger – and this could change the aerospace industry’s economy forever.
Starship MK1 – first in its lineup. Image Source: SpaceX.
To the moon, Alice (or in that general direction)
That’s why, on Wednesday, December 9, SpaceX conducted the first high-altitude test flight of its Starship Interplanetary Rocketship – the Musk-believing spacecraft that will soon carry U.S. astronauts to the moon and a few years later to Mars.
In a demonstration that lasted just 6 minutes, 42 seconds to complete, the starship “SN8” was lifted vertically, climbed to an altitude of 41,000 feet (less than eight miles), turned off its engines and operated a “belly flap” maneuver – flip horizontally to increase wind resistance and surface area (craft And dissipates heat) it returned to Earth. 11 seconds before the impact, the SN8 dominated to move its engines back vertically, and opened fire as it came slowly and tried to land on its tail.
It failed.
Affecting a degree or two off-vertical, and moving too fast for a few meters per second for safety, the rocket hits its landing base and explodes into a ball of fire.
The child is stepping towards success
But that’s right. Keep in mind that this is SpaceX First After several short “hops” with Starship’s previous repetitions, the high-altitude test aircraft exploded before it could take off from the ground. In contrast, on this test flight, 99.9% of what was supposed to go exactly was as it should have been.
In tweets after the event, Elon Musk described the rocket’s “climbing, switching to title tanks and precise flap control” all as “successful”. In fact, the SpaceX spacecraft may have escaped from its landing, but “low pressure in the fuel header tank during landing” prevents sufficient speed before landing. In any event, Elon said: “We got all the data we needed.”
I do not know about you, but it’s like the promise that SpaceX will sharpen its pencils, find the final details it needs to get it right, and soon launch another test flight.
If it is available That One 100% OK? What happens next?
Changing the economy of space travel
Let me tell you what’s going on: the place is cheap. Throughout A lot Cheap.
Think about it: Currently the largest non-SpaceX rocket is the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy, which can lift about 24 metric tons of cargo into low earth orbit at a cost of about $ 150 million.
SpaceX’s Balkan Heavy Rocket, meanwhile, can carry more than twice as much payload (64 tons) for as little as 99 million (in a recent contract). But even early-model starships are estimated to have a Leo payload capacity of over 100 metric tons.
So no matter how much SpaceX charges for a starship launch, the payload that Starship can pay for that Delta IV Heavy is four times higher than what ULA has already charged for Delta IV Heavy. This means that with Starship, SpaceX can Both Charge the lowest price for a space launch And Protect the higher profit margin if it wants to.
Moreover, because the Starship is designed to be a reusable spacecraft (unlike the Delta IV Heavy that is spent after each launch), the cost of launching the Starship to SpaceX could fall somewhat rapidly, and the fuel cost to launch it could be as high as $ 1 million or more than $ 2 million, according to Muskin. SpaceX should be more profitable than any other space company in the world.
I’ve said it before, and now I say it again: if you build the SpaceX Starship and prove that it can fly, it will always change the space launch.