SpaceX is conducting the first orbital test flight of its largest and most powerful Starship rocket in the world, which is intended for trips to the Moon and Mars.
The giant rocket is scheduled to take off from the “Starbase” space base in the far south of Texas, USA. The weather conditions seem to be suitable for this launch, reports Al-Rai daily quoting AFP.
The 120-meter-long missile belongs to the category of missiles capable of carrying vehicles weighing more than 100 tons. Its take-off power is supposed to be twice as strong as the “Saturn 5” missile for the “Apollo” missions.
The company, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, has been publishing pictures of the black and silver rocket on its launch pad for days, while space enthusiasts are very enthusiastic about launching the Starship, which operates on liquid oxygen and methane.
No test flight of the two-layer missile has yet been conducted, including the first, which bears the name “Super Heavy”.
The flights conducted so far have been limited to the Starship vehicle, which is the second layer of the rocket, as it carried out suborbital test flights (up to a height of about ten kilometers).
The “Super Heavy” layer is scheduled to separate about three minutes after take-off and fall into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, while the “Starship” vehicle will continue to fly alone and make a little less than a complete revolution around the Earth before falling into the Pacific Ocean.
And “SpaceX” stated that the above may be a “best case scenario”, because the outcome of the launch process is not guaranteed.
Elon Musk tweeted on his Twitter page, “Maybe we won’t succeed tomorrow if success means reaching orbit,” adding, “If we notice any worrying detail, we will postpone the launch.” He hoped that the launch, if successful, would not lead to the destruction of the launch pad.
Musk fears that one of the thirty-three “Super Heavy” engines will explode and cause the others to explode. “If this happens and leads to the destruction of the launch pad, it will take several months to rebuild,” he said, adding, “If the missile moved away from the platform for a sufficient distance before any problem was recorded, we will consider this a success.”