Numerous modifications have been made to the black-and-silver behemoth, the largest and most powerful object ever to have flown.<\/p>\n
But immense technical challenges remain before Starship \u2013 which Musk hopes to make fully reusable \u2013 can be considered ready for commercial flights or to reach the moon or Mars.<\/p>\n
28,000km\/h<\/p>\n
With this new test, SpaceX hopes to usher in an \u201cexciting new phase\u201d of development that will include, among other things, tests of refuelling the rocket in orbit.<\/p>\n
The spacecraft will be launched on Monday on a suborbital trajectory and, if all systems are go, then perform a second burn to reach orbit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the hardest part\u201d, requiring \u201cmore forces and more complex calculations\u201d, explained Kathleen Curlee, a senior analyst at Georgetown University\u2019s Centre for Security and Emerging Technology.<\/p>\n
To reach the necessary altitude and speed, \u201cthe rocket has to do different things when it\u2019s experiencing different levels of gravity\u201d, she told AFP.<\/p>\n
On this flight, SpaceX is aiming for a circular orbit about 275km (171 miles) above Earth, requiring a speed of about 28,000km\/h.<\/p>\n
If it achieves that, the spacecraft will then attempt to deploy satellites designed to expand the company\u2019s already massive satellite internet constellation.<\/p>\n
Public expectations<\/p>\n
The plan calls for the rocket to finish its journey in the Pacific Ocean after orbiting Earth six times.<\/p>\n
The huge first-stage booster, called \u201cSuper Heavy\u201d, will fall shortly after launch into waters of the Gulf of Mexico. SpaceX does not plan to catch it this time using huge mechanical arms.<\/p>\n
From an engineering point of view, \u201cjust achieving flight and getting data\u201d would be considered a success, Curlee said.<\/p>\n
But spectators and investors have different expectations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need to have flashy tests\u201d because anything less would be seen as a failure, she added.<\/p>\n
The development of Starship has faced repeated delays, and a Chinese company has recently made progress in the field of reusable rockets.<\/p>\n
Still, SpaceX continues to dominate the global space launch market, thanks to its partially reusable Falcon rockets, and has made risk-taking its mantra.<\/p>\n
Whether or not it is successful, this 14th test flight will be followed the same week by three other SpaceX rocket launches, one of which will carry a crew of astronauts to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n
– AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Numerous modifications have been made to the black-and-silver behemoth, the largest and most powerful object ever to have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[74,4886,4496,33965,170,25279,44185,1888,70,2082,3273,78,3331,6248,15399,14351,9878,8036,111,139,69,35923,9214,13650,147,392,1503,250529,5147,21694,765,223,1529,2044,61,6845,1533,1530],"class_list":["post-614234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-after","tag-aims","tag-attempt","tag-designed","tag-development","tag-earths","tag-enter","tag-first","tag-flight","tag-for","tag-future","tag-in","tag-launch","tag-mars","tag-massive","tag-missions","tag-monday","tag-moon","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-orbit","tag-put","tag-rocket","tag-science","tag-space","tag-spacex","tag-spacexs","tag-starship","tag-step","tag-test","tag-the","tag-three","tag-time","tag-to","tag-vehicle","tag-will","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}