On October 13th, 2024, SpaceX launched the fifth test flight of the Starship. The Starship towers are almost 400 feet tall and have two components: the Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy rocket. The Super Heavy rocket is about 230 feet tall, while the Starship rocket is about 160 feet tall. The purpose of Starship is to soon carry crew and cargo to the Moon and, eventually, Mars. It is capable of carrying up to 150 metric tonnes, fully reusable. The liftoff of the Starship occurred at 8:25 a.m. ET. It had taken off from SpaceX’s “Starbase”, which is where the manufacturing and development of the Starship takes place. After the rocket booster had burned through most of its fuel, it detached from the Starship spacecraft and maneuvered to a landing structure with a series of metal pincers (which SpaceX calls “chopsticks”) that caught the booster. This flight test was a massive step towards making a fully reusable rocket system, and as Elon Musk stated, an enormous step in making life multi-planetary.
The Raptor engine is a reusable combustion engine that helps power the Starship. Starship is powered by six Raptor engines and three Raptor Vacuum engines. The purpose of the Raptor Vacuum engine is to work in the vacuum of space. As for the Super Heavy rocket, it is powered by 33 Raptor engines. Each Raptor engine is about 10 feet tall and over 4 feet in diameter. The Starship is an incredible spacecraft ahead of its time and maybe a massive step in creating life opportunities on the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Related Stories:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/13/science/spacex-starship-test-flight-5-launch/index.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/13/spacex-starship-rocket-launch-flight-5-booster-catch-attempt.html
https://apnews.com/article/spacex-starship-rocket-launch-7af865e987bb4a2aad38759e06013626
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2024/10/19/the_starship_revolution_in_space_1066297.html
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