Direct | Elon Musk launches Starship, his ship to land on the Moon

The company SpaceX of the tycoon Elon Musk today makes the first test of Starship, the ship with which it hopes to be able to take up to 100 passengers to the Moon and Mars.

The ship will take off today aboard the Super Heavy rocket, the most powerful in history.

The launch attempt window opens today at three in the afternoon, Spanish peninsular time, from the company's base near the Texan town of Brownsville, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

More information

The most powerful rockets in history speed up the race to the Moon

Starship is a fundamental part of the new space race towards the Moon led by the United States.

The reusable ship will theoretically be in charge of taking the first astronauts to the surface of the Moon in more than 50 years: a woman and a non-white person, according to the plans of the US space agency, which has a million-dollar contract with the Musk's company for the use of Starship.

The chosen date is 2025, although it remains to be seen if the ship will be ready by then.

Road to Starship's first integrated flight test → https://t.co/gOrrujHxMO pic.twitter.com/pK7TgFuzRN

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 17, 2023

This will be the first flight of the Super Heavy coupled to the Starship ship, although SpaceX has indeed turned on 31 of its 33 engines that work simultaneously.

Spectators before the launch of SpaceX's Starship in Brownsville, Texas, this Monday. GO NAKAMURA (REUTERS)

Today's launch opportunity is between three and half past four in the afternoon, Spanish peninsular time.

The reusable Super Heavy rocket, a monster as tall as a 40-story building, is scheduled to propel the spacecraft for eight minutes until it is placed in Earth orbit.

The vehicle on top of the rocket will reach a height of about 240 kilometers and will fly for 90 minutes.

The aircraft has been designed to land vertically and be reused.

Today's test only focuses on takeoff and flight without a crew or satellites, so it is expected that after its flight, Starship will fall into the Pacific Ocean about 100 kilometers north of the island of Kauai, in Hawaii (United States). ).

On Sunday afternoon Elon Musk lowered expectations in a talk for users of Twitter, the social network he also owns.

There are "a million reasons" why the test could go wrong, he assured, and warned that if they see risks they will abort the attempt.

“There is a good chance that it will be postponed, as we are going to be very careful with this release.

If it goes wrong, there are many things that can go wrong ”, he has warned.

One of the obsessions of the tycoon and the rest of the company's 11,000 employees is for the rocket to launch successfully and get as far as possible from the massive 146-meter launch pad, which is also designed to re-fish the rocket once. used.

But in today's test the artifact will fall into the sea in the Gulf of Mexico.

If today's launch were to be cancelled,

The Starship spacecraft, located on top of the Super Heavy rocket in Boca Chica, Texas, on April 10, 2023.- (AFP)

You can follow