Elon Musk's SpaceX is all set to launch Starship on Monday, after getting the nod from the Federal Aviation Authority on Friday last week. The Starship is the most powerful rocket ever made. The two-stage rocket is 394 feet high and is taller than the Statue of Liberty. Starship is ready to blast off from the SpaceX facility at Boca Chica, Texas. The most powerful rocket ever developed is designed to have almost double the thrust of any rocket flown before in history.
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It will be launched at 8 am EDT and is going to be live-streamed on SpaceX's webcast. The launch can also be watched live from SpaceX's YouTube channel.
Technical Details
The Starship has 33 main engines and 16. Million pounds of thrust. It can lift 250 tons and accommodate 100 persons at a time. The six-engine spacecraft accounts for 50 meters of its height. The test mission does not have any passengers onboard.
The test flight would last 1 hr 30 minutes approximately. After the launch Starship would continue eastward, passing over the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans before ditching near Hawaii. After separating from the Starship, the Super Heavy booster is expected to execute the beginnings of a controlled return flight before plunging into the Gulf of Mexico. It is designed to be fully reusable, but nothing will be saved from the test flight.
Ambitious Mission
SpaceX's ambitious test mission is an important milestone in Elon Musk's dream to send humans to the moon and eventually to other planets. "It is the first launch of a very complicated rocket. We are going to be very careful, and if we see anything that gives us concern, we will postpone the launch. In case we launch, I would consider anything that does not destroy the launch pad itself to be a win," the billionaire businessman said during the Twitter Space event.
SpaceX has already signed a contract with NASA to take astronauts to the moon's surface on Starship as part of the Artemis program. Because it is totally and fast reusable, the Starship is projected to make interplanetary travel more accessible to regular humans.
