SpaceX's "Starship" - the world's most powerful rocket - was scheduled to embark on its first orbital flight on April 17th.
Minutes before the start there are problems.
The news ticker.
"
Starship" test flight
aborted
shortly before
takeoff
: Musk tweets about problems with the pressure valve.
SpaceX
's
"Starship" rocket
before
its maiden flight
: the start of the unmanned test flight has been postponed by 20 minutes.
SpaceX
"Starship"
test flight
is imminent: The most powerful rocket ever developed is scheduled to take off from Texas today.
This news ticker on the "
Starship
"
test flight
is
updated
regularly .
April 17 update 3:26 p.m
.: "The rocket will not launch today," SpaceX said.
Minutes before takeoff, it was clear that the test flight would have to be aborted.
However, preparations for launch continued as a so-called "wet dress rehearsal" to load the rockets with fuel.
10 seconds before the start the countdown clock was stopped.
The problem occurred when filling the rocket with fuel.
According to Elon Musk, it should be a frozen pressure valve.
"Learned a lot today," Musk tweeted.
Now the fuel would be discharged.
When exactly there will be a new start attempt is initially unclear.
SpaceX entrepreneur Musk writes on Twitter about an attempt in a few days.
The SpaceX team must first figure out exactly what went wrong.
The BBC reports that it takes at least 48 hours to restart the rocket.
"Starship" test flight aborted shortly before takeoff: Musk tweets about problems with the pressure valve
Update from April 17, 3:07 p.m .
: Onlookers are waiting for the launch of Space's spaceship, as can be seen in the agency photo.
From South Padre Island the view of the SpaceX Starbase seems to be excellent.
Boats are forbidden in the sea.
The Coast Guard controls the section on the coast.
The countdown for the "Starship" test flight was stopped at minus 40 seconds.
The start will be canceled and should continue as a dress rehearsal to collect data.
The SpaceX team is working on a "pressure problem".
A pressure valve appears to have frozen, Elon Musk tweeted.
There would be no start if it didn't go into operation.
"Starship": SpaceX tests the most powerful rocket in the world
Update from April 17, 2:50 p.m
.: The countdown is on.
In less than 20 minutes, SpaceX wants to send "Starship" on its first journey into space.
Everything seems to be going according to plan at the launch pad.
The weather in Boca Chica, Texas is ideal, as can be seen in the YouTube live stream.
The sky is blue.
There should be some surface winds.
In the first stage, SpaceX wants to ignite the 33 engines of its gigantic "Super Heavy" launch vehicle on the ground.
Update April 17, 2:20 p.m.
: SpaceX is planning a live stream on YouTube, which should begin 45 minutes before launch.
However, there was a problem.
Live recordings were only shown later.
Elon Musk tweeted: "Spaceship cryogenic fuel cargo is on its way.
Start at T minus 1 hour.”
SpaceX's "Starship" rocket before maiden flight: Start of unmanned test flight postponed by 20 minutes
The start of the "Starship" test flight was previously postponed to 8:20 a.m. local time (3:20 p.m. German time).
Cryogenic propellant load of Starship is underway, liftoff in T minus 1 hour
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 17, 2023
How big is Elon Musk's Starship rocket?
Update from April 17, 2:01 p.m .
: Elon Musk’s SpaceX company wants to launch the huge “Starship” rocket system.
Starship is scheduled to take off from Boca Chica, Texas today (Monday, April 17).
It is the largest and most powerful rocket ever developed by humans.
The launch ramp and, in the future, also the receiving ramp is 146 meters high, SpaceX announced in advance.
However, no landing operation of this kind is planned for the upcoming test flight.
If everything goes according to plan, the unmanned test flight will take 90 minutes.
"Starship" orbits the earth almost once before the spaceship "gently touches water" off Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.
rocket | size in meters |
|---|---|
Starship by SpaceX | almost 120 meters |
SLS Nasa rocket for the Orion space capsule | 98 meters |
Saturn V moon rocket | 110 meters |
"Starship" before test flight into space: start time postponed by one hour
Update from April 17, 1:06 p.m
.: “Starship” from SpaceX is scheduled to take off for a test flight on Monday (April 17, 2023).
It could start at 3 p.m. CEST.
The space company announced this on Monday night.
The launch window had been pushed back an hour.
The test flight is considered historic.
At almost 120 meters high, the "Starship" rocket is the largest to date and the most powerful of all.
+
Starship is ready at the launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas (USA).
At almost 120 meters, the rocket is the largest in the world to date.
© SPACEX / AFP
Rocket launch today: SpaceX's "Starship" is ready for the test flight
Update from April 17, 11:49 a.m
.: The rocket is almost 120 meters high and is said to have twice the thrust of all rockets in history: "Starship" from SpaceX.
The unmanned rocket is scheduled to take off from Boca Chica in Texas (USA) on Monday.
Thousands of onlookers are expected in the coastal town on the Gulf of Mexico to witness the event.
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However, according to entrepreneur Elon Musk, it is not uncommon for something to go wrong on the maiden flight.
It's the first launch of a very complicated and gigantic rocket, so it may not launch, Musk said on Twitter, as reported by the BBC.
SpaceX is planning a live stream on YouTube, which, according to
fr.de
, should begin 45 minutes before launch.
SpaceX's "Starship" test flight is imminent: The most powerful rocket ever developed is scheduled to take off from Texas today
Update from April 17, 2023, 5:08 a.m .:
The US space company SpaceX is planning the first test flight of the most powerful giant rocket ever built, Starship, for Monday.
The launch is scheduled for 7:00 a.m. local time (2:00 p.m. CEST) from SpaceX's Starbase facility in the US state of Texas.
"Success maybe, excitement guaranteed," wrote SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
In February, almost all of the first-stage engines of the Starship rocket were successfully fired during a test at the Boca Chica missile base.
With it, astronauts should be able to travel to the moon and beyond.
World's largest rocket "Starship": SpaceX and Elon Musk comment on the start date
Surname: | Starship by SpaceX |
|---|---|
1st stage: | Boosters (Super Heavy) |
2nd stage: | spaceship |
total height: | 119 meters |
Payload: | more than 100 tons (after refueling in earth orbit) |
Goals: | ia Moon, Mars |
Update from April 11, 2023:
The launch of SpaceX's heavy-duty rocket "Starship" could be as early as next week.
This is indicated by SpaceX boss Elon Musk on Twitter.
On Monday (April 10) he wrote there: "Starship launch tends towards the end of the third week of April".
This fuels the rumors and conjectures around April 20th as the date for the maiden flight of the big rocket.
The day is considered the unofficial "World Cannabis Day", Musk had already indirectly indicated several times that the long-awaited "Starship" day could take place on this date.
So far, however, SpaceX still has to wait for official approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration.
When the "Starship" presumably takes off for the first time in April, it will become the most powerful rocket with a starting thrust of more than 7700 tons.
The new Nasa rocket SLS, which brought the "Orion" space capsule to the moon last year, has only about half as much thrust.
The SpaceX heavy lift rocket is also the tallest rocket ever built at 119 meters tall.
The SLS was only 98 meters high, the moon rocket "Saturn V" was about 110 meters high.
"Starship": Launch of the rocket from SpaceX "end of the third week of April" expected
Update from April 7, 2023:
When will SpaceX's new giant rocket "Starship" start its first orbital flight?
Elon Musk's company has spoken out on the subject for the first time, not with an exact date, but at least a period of time: The team is working on doing a rehearsal of the launch in the coming week, followed by the first flight about a week later – “subject to regulatory approval,” as SpaceX writes on Twitter.
So the first orbital flight of the “Starship” will not take place before April 17, 2023.
Some observers of SpaceX boss Elon Musk suspect that he is targeting April 20 as the launch date - the day is considered the unofficial "World Cannabis Day".
Ever since Musk was spotted smoking cannabis in a video podcast, Musk has been flirting with his reputation — including incoherently tweeting the number “420,” which is the US code for smoking cannabis.
Starship fully stacked at Starbase.
Team is working towards a launch rehearsal next week followed by Starship's first integrated flight test ~week later pending regulatory approval pic.twitter.com/9VbJLppswp
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 6, 2023
SpaceX's Starship could launch in April for the first time
First report from April 4, 2023:
Boca Chica Village - Astronautical space is gaining momentum and Elon Musk has a large part in it.
The eccentric billionaire last caused a stir with his space company SpaceX in November 2020: At that time, SpaceX transported a crew of four to the International Space Station (ISS) on board a "Crew Dragon" space capsule for the first time.
And that ended a long dry spell for the US space agency Nasa: Since then, the USA has been able to transport astronauts into space again – dependence on the Russian Soyuz capsules is history.
Now SpaceX is about to take a similarly important step: In the course of April, the company's "Starship" is to be launched for the first time.
It is a heavy-duty rocket consisting of two parts: On the first rocket stage called "Super Heavy" sits the upper stage, a spaceship called "Starship".
Both parts are made of stainless steel and should be completely reusable.
It is planned that the "Starship" will transport people and cargo to the moon and Mars in the future.
Elon Musk's SpaceX Starship is scheduled to make its first orbital flight in April
But first the "Starship" has to show what it can do - although numerous tests have been carried out so far, the spaceship has not yet completed an orbital flight.
For many months, SpaceX has been working on this project, which is now apparently on the home stretch.
In March, Elon Musk said the Starship's maiden flight was scheduled for the third week of April.
But as SpaceX observers report, there are signs that the giant rocket's first orbital flight could come sooner.
The "Starship" has been on its launch site at the SpaceX launch site in Boca Chica Village in Texas for a few days.
For the period from April 6th to 12th there are warnings for shipping in the region, as the satellite observer Marco Langbroek writes.
This could be an indication that the maiden flight is scheduled in this period.
But SpaceX is still waiting for a launch license from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is why observers assume that SpaceX is not targeting the first few days of the launch window.
Rumors are solidifying: "Starship" launch on April 10 or 11?
As the
ArsTechnica
portal reports, April 10 or 11 appear to be possible launch dates – after all, the US space agency Nasa has reserved a special aircraft for observing the test flight for these days.
Nasa is very interested in the "Starship" because it chose the spacecraft as the lunar module for the next moon landing.
But before the flight to the moon comes the orbital test flight: After the launch in Texas, the rocket is to fly east, over the Gulf of Mexico.
The first rocket stage should fall into the sea during this first flight and play no further role, because the focus is on the flight.
After the upper stage of the "Starship" has separated from the booster, it should reach almost orbital speed (about 28,000 km/h) and almost completely orbit the earth before re-entering the earth's atmosphere over the Pacific.
A splashdown of the "Starship" is planned in the Pacific, north of Hawaii.
Elon Musk: SpaceX's Starship launch has a 50 percent chance of success
According to Elon Musk, he assumes that the "Starship" will have a 50 percent chance of success when it is first launched.
In Boca Chica Village, SpaceX is building several "Starship" prototypes that are to be launched at relatively short intervals.
"I think hopefully we have about an 80 percent chance of reaching Earth orbit this year," Musk said at the Morgan Stanley conference in early March.
If the launch is successful, SpaceX will once again cause a stir in space travel: The "Starship" can accommodate up to 100 people, the launch thrust is twice as high as that of the NASA rocket "Space Launch System" (SLS), which is in the sent a space capsule on its way around the moon last year.
The "Starship" should be able to transport more than 100 tons of payload to the moon or Mars - if it is refueled in earth orbit, which is also planned.
In the not-too-distant future, the heavy-duty rocket should make Elon Musk's big dream come true: the colonization of Mars - Musk founded the company more than 20 years ago to make mankind a "multiplanetary species".
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Rubric list image: © Screenshot SpaceX
