Head of the American company SPACEX Ilon Mask called the orbital flight period of the Multi-Fair Transportation System StarShip, which is considered the world’s largest rocket. It is reported by SpaceFlight Now.
Edition writes that the StarShip system can go to orbit in January 2022. This will happen if Spacex has time to complete the construction of an appropriate starting area in Texas, to conduct the necessary tests of the rocket and get permission to launch from the Federal Department of US Civil Aviation.
“We completed the first orbital accelerator and the first orbital ship, and we will finish with the starting platform and the starting tower at the end of this month, and then we will spend several tests in December and hopefully launch [Bundles from the accelerator and ship] in January “,” said Mask.
According to him, the first orbital launch of StarShip is associated with great risk, so it is unlikely that it will be successful. “
“I think we will achieve great progress,” he said. In total, in 2022, Spacex plans to carry out at least 12 launches of the multi-precision transport system. In 2023, the company intends to use StarShip for commercial starts.
In October, Spacex conducted fire tests of the Raptor rocket engine designed to work in space vacuum. At the time of testing, the power plant was located as part of the promising transport system StarShip. Tests lasted a few seconds and passed successfully.