Context:
The largest rocket in the world, the Starship from SpaceX, detonated during its initial test trip into orbit.
The Starship
- Starship is the name given to SpaceX’s Super Heavy rocket and Starship spaceship.
- The Super Heavy rocket serves as the Starship launch system’s first stage or booster.
- Using liquid oxygen (LOX) and subcooled liquid methane (CH4), 33 Raptor engines provide the power.
- The Super Heavy is totally reusable and will reenter the Earth’s atmosphere to land back at the launch site. The Raptor engine is a reusable methane-oxygen staged-combustion engine that powers the Starship system.
- It is the second stage of the Starship system, the Starship spacecraft.
- It can also go from point A to point B on Earth, making it possible to get everywhere in the planet in under an hour.
- It is a completely reusable spacecraft that can travel to Mars, the Moon, and Earth orbit while also carrying cargo.
- With a carrying capacity of up to 250 metric tons of expendable weight and 150 metric tons of fully reusable weight, it is the most potent launch vehicle yet created.
Objectives
- Making Starship reusable and lowering the cost to a few million dollars per trip are the objectives.
Building outposts on the Moon and Mars in the future will put humans on the “path to becoming a multi-planet civilization.”
Future Mission
- For the first time since the Apollo program came to an end in 1972, NASA has chosen the Starship spacecraft to carry men to the Moon in late 2025. This mission is known as Artemis III.
Mission Artemis III
A crew will touch down on the Moon’s south pole as part of the Artemis III mission. Two astronauts will be present on the Moon’s surface for roughly a week. The mission aims to be the first to send a woman and someone who is not white to the moon.