After months of galley, the Starship of SpaceX finally reconnects with success at the end of a tenth well -negotiated test flight, ending the black series of the new model.
After two consecutive postpones in recent days, the huge rocket has finally set off at 12:30 am on July 27 from Texas for a high voltage flight. The upper floor, the Starship itself, was particularly expected at the turn. This new version, called Block 2, had so far had no test flights. It even remained on a series of four consecutive accidents since its introduction – three air explosions during the 7ᵉ, 8ᵉ and 9ᵉ flights, and one on the ground during a firing test.
This night, the machine has finally executed without making whims, validating its objectives one after the other. After a calm ascent and a notable separation, the starship has successfully deployed eight satellite simulators Starlink on their destination orbit. It is the first time that it thus deploys a payload in space. Shortly after, he also carried out a RAPTOR engine reinforcement test in spacethe second in its history.
The stars was hot
The second part of the mission, on the other hand, was more eventful. Despite its recent setbacks, SpaceX did not plan to save its protégé: the engineers had withdrawn several thermal protective tiles. The objective was to study the resistance of the most vulnerable areas, in anticipation of future missions where the stars could take useful much more precious, even humans.
The consequences of these concessions were not long in coming. Several elements of the fuselage quickly started to shine, heated white by friction with the atmosphere. Two minutes after the start of the start of the school year, while the temperature happily exceeded the 1000 ° C, part of the skirt was torn off, leaving behind a cloud of debris that did not go good.
A saving success
Despite everything, the Starship finally arrived in fairly good condition to make its last fire, allowing it to (almost) delicately reach its destination in the Indian Ocean. He even did it with remarkable precision, since he landed in the field of vision of a buoy equipped with a camera installed nearby … which was able to record his explosion after a final aquatic convertible.
In the end, the mission was therefore not perfect – but it is still From a great success for the Starship Block 2, which finally arrived atu end of a mission without major incident.
SpaceX desperately needed it in the current context. Now the issue will be Confirm this return in shape during the 11ᵉ vol. Knowing SpaceX and Elon Musk, it will undoubtedly be even more ambitious than the previous ones. See you in a few weeks, once engineers have analyzed the data, to find out the continuation of the program.
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