The company called the testing of the next-generation spacecraft “great”, even though it ended with a fire explosion.
Elon Musk’s dream rocket prototype test was to send people to Mars at an altitude of several miles on Wednesday. However, when trying to land, it landed too quickly and exploded.
This is the latest test of the next-generation spacecraft developed by Mr. Musk’s rocket company SpaceX. It was partially successful.
SpaceX’s live broadcast showed that at the company’s test site in southern Texas, the wreckage of a rocket named “Starship” remained. After reaching the conclusion, the “Awesome Test” reads the text on the broadcast screen. “Congratulations, Starship Team!”
As the evening sun lowered, the huge stainless steel spacecraft on the horizon rose from the launch pad at 5:45 pm. After reaching the apex, it began to fall as planned, capsized and returned to the earth in a controlled glide.
Near the ground, it resumed its vertical orientation and fired three engines to slow down, but it was not enough. After the impact, about 40 minutes after lift-off, that is, 6 minutes, it disintegrated in the fireball and emitted thick smoke on the test site.
This is still an advancement in SpaceX’s development work. In tests that simply pumped ultra-cold liquid propellant into the rocket tank, the early prototype never disintegrated.
SpaceX has achieved success in the launch business, and it is now the most valuable private company in the world. Its Falcon 9 rocket has become the main driving force for putting satellites into orbit. It routinely transports cargo to the International Space Station, and has lifted NASA astronauts here twice this year, and plans to make more trips in 2021.
However, when Musk said that the company was only a few years away from sending an interstellar spacecraft to Mars, many people were skeptical. He has set a timetable for SpaceX many times, and it turns out that SpaceX’s development speed is too optimistic.
When he provided the latest news on the development of “Starship” last year, he said that a high-altitude test will be conducted in a few months, and an orbital flight may be conducted early this year.
On the contrary, several catastrophic failures occurred due to welding errors. When the propellant tank stopped rupturing, one of the prototypes successfully made a short flight in September. An earlier model of an interstellar spacecraft resembled a spray paint can, but the label was removed, and a rocket engine used a rocket engine to lift itself nearly 500 feet before it fell into the Texas proving ground near the village of Boca Chica.
Although SpaceX is still a long way from realizing Mr. Musk’s Mars plan, he hopes his company can fund travel to and from the red planet and won this week. Since 2019, SpaceX has launched hundreds of satellites into low-Earth orbit to establish a constellation called Starlink, which aims to provide high-speed Internet services in space. One of Starlink’s stated goals is to provide broadband access to underserved areas.
On Monday, the Federal Communications Commission announced that it would grant billions of dollars in funding to a series of Internet service providers to expand broadband access in such areas. SpaceX won an award worth $885 million.