The test of a prototype spacecraft Starship by the American company Space may be evidence of a revolution in modern astronautics, The Drive said.
“Today’s firing test suggests that the US space program may be on the verge of a revolution unseen in almost half a century. Objectives [chapter SpaceX Ilona] Musk are extremely ambitious, but the implementation of a working Starship in any of the possibilities would mean a huge leap in the availability of space flights, “the American edition writes.
According to RIA Novosti , head Space Policy Institute Ivan Moiseev is sure that” Starship is a technique that has nothing to do with the actual design and construction of spaceships. ” In his opinion, such products are not built, like Dunno on the Moon, in an open field.
During the test flight, the prototype of the Starship spacecraft of the eighth version (SN8) ascended to an altitude of 12 kilometers, landed, after which exploded . The item was in the air for 40 seconds.
In September Musk posted on Twitter a photo of Starship SN8, which received a tail … At the same time, the engineer said that the flaps of the publication are now directly driven by electric motors with a gearbox, that is, without hydraulics. According to Musk, Starship SN8 should take off to a height of 15 kilometers.
Starship is the second stage of SpaceX’s Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) reusable space transport system. The second stage will receive six Raptor engines, the first one – 31. The Raptor, which runs on methane and oxygen, has the highest thrust-to-weight ratio (the ratio of the thrust developed by the power unit to its weight) of any rocket engine ever created. In a reusable version, the BFR system is designed to launch up to 150 tons of payload into low-Earth orbit and return to Earth up to 50 tons, as well as comfortable transportation of up to 100 people (2-3 per cabin) to the Moon and Mars. The system should fly in the first half of the next decade.