The Starship rocket was manufactured by SpaceX with the first launch on April 20, 2023. The Starship is a fully reusable two-stage super heavy-lift launch vehicle. It stands almost 120m (400ft) high and is designed to have almost double the thrust of any rocket in history. Mission: Integrated Flight Test. This is the second flight attempt of the two-stage Starship launch vehicle. The vehicle's maiden flight in April ended in spectacular style when it lost control and exploded four minutes after leaving the ground in Texas. Engineers have since made 'more than a thousand' changes to Starship's systems to try to make the vehicle more reliable. The Starship will lift off from Boca Chica in Texas. The aim is to send the upper-stage of the vehicle eastward, to complete almost one circuit of the globe. The booster will separate 170 seconds into flight and return to land approximately 32 km off the shore in the Gulf of Mexico. The second stage will follow a suborbital trajectory and perform an unpowered splashdown approximately 100 km off the northwest coast of Kauai (Hawaii). This mammoth booster, called simply Super Heavy, was fired while clamped to its launch mount in February. However, the engines on that occasion were throttled back to half their capability. If Mr Musk can get Starship working as designed, it will be revolutionary. Mr Musk has said 'If we do launch, I would consider anything that does not result in the destruction of the launch pad itself to be a win'. |