Elon Musk is attempting to build the worlds most powerful rocket to take human passengers and cargo to the Moon, Mars and beyond.<\/p>\n
The Starship is close to making its first orbital test flight, and if successful, will move the rocket a step closer to launching missions.<\/p>\n
Two billionaires have already bought tickets for a ride on the 120-metre-tall Starship, which is being developed by SpaceX.<\/p>\n
American Jared Isaacman has a seat on the first crewed flight.<\/p>\n
And Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa has bought tickets for the first crewed flight to the Moon.<\/p>\n
SpaceX is also building a Starship Human Lander that would be used by Nasa for its crewed flights to the Moon as part of the Artemis programme.<\/p>\n
The National looks at eight key things to know about the rocket.<\/p>\n
Three Starship rockets alongside a heavy loft booster. The reusable rockets are at the centre of SpaceX's plans for the future. Willy Lowry \/ The National <\/p>\n
Starship is a two-stage rocket system that includes a booster and a Starship spacecraft.<\/p>\n
It has been in development for many years at the Starbase launch site in Boca Chica, Texas.<\/p>\n
The rocket has completed high-altitude tests, but it is yet to perform an orbital flight.<\/p>\n
Mr Musk is building it to carry satellites into low-Earth orbit, astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station and uncrewed and crewed missions to the Moon.<\/p>\n
But his ultimate goal is to use Starship to send people and cargo to Mars to eventually build a colony there.<\/p>\n
SpaceX has built a Super Heavy Launch vehicle, or booster rocket, that the Starship will launch atop of.<\/p>\n
The launch vehicle will be the worlds most powerful, producing 3,991 tonnes of thrust, 15 per cent more than Nasas Apollo Moon rocket Saturn V.<\/p>\n
Starship has been designed to deliver 100 tonnes of payload to low-Earth orbit, but then will have to refuel while in orbit to reach destinations that are farther away.<\/p>\n
SpaceX is reportedly looking to use a repurposed Starship to act as a fuel station in orbit. Several refuel rockets would launch and dock with the station, where a rocket bound for deep space could refuel.<\/p>\n
The Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster. <\/p>\n
To power the booster and Starship spacecraft, SpaceX is using powerful Raptor engines that can produce 230 tonnes of thrust.<\/p>\n
That is slightly more than the RS-25 engines that Nasas new Moon rocket Space Launch System will use.<\/p>\n
Six raptor engines will be used in the Starship spacecraft and 33 in the booster.<\/p>\n
The Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket have been designed to be fully reusable.<\/p>\n
The booster lands back on the ground after the Starship spacecraft separates from it, and the spacecraft can also land back after delivering the payload.<\/p>\n
SpaceXs Falcon 9 rockets are also reusable. Nasa uses them and the Crew Dragon spacecraft to launch their astronauts to and from the International Space Station.<\/p>\n
Other billionaires have also built reusable rockets. Jeff Bezoss New Shepard rocket is used for sub-orbital space tourism flights after which it lands back on ground after the crew capsule separates from it.<\/p>\n
There is no launch date yet, because the rocket has to first prove it can fly to orbit.<\/p>\n
Mr Musk has said if testing goes well Starship would be ready next month for an orbital test flight.<\/p>\n
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently released details of what the test flight would involve.<\/p>\n
The rocket will launch from Starbase and then the booster will separate from the spacecraft at about 170 seconds into the flight.<\/p>\n
The booster will then perform a partial return and land in the Gulf of Mexico approximately 32 kilometres from the shore.<\/p>\n
The orbital Starship will continue flying between the Florida Straits.<\/p>\n
It will achieve orbit until performing a powered, targeted landing approximately 100km off the north-west coast of Kauai, a Hawaiian island, in a soft ocean landing.<\/p>\n
But before SpaceX can go ahead with any orbital flights, it will have to get a launch licence from the FAA.<\/p>\n
The authority has allowed the company to carry out its work on Starbase, but it will have to meet 75 conditions to continue operations.<\/p>\n
Some of these include reducing the environmental effects and lowering the number of road closures.<\/p>\n
In future, however, SpaceX will use Florida's Kennedy Space Centre to launch its Starship missions.<\/p>\n
This week, a booster rocket went up in flames after an explosion during a ground test on Monday. The test was taking place to prepare for an orbital test flight of the booster 7 and Starship 24, prototypes of the rocket.<\/p>\n
The rocket was moved back to the garage for assessment and Mr Musk said the damage was minor.<\/p>\n
Mr Musks long-term goal is to make life multi-planetary.<\/p>\n
He is working towards sending a million people to Mars by 2050 using his Starship fleets.<\/p>\n
He hopes to send the first uncrewed cargo flight to the planet this decade.<\/p>\n
But his plans are often criticised by experts in the science community, because Mars has a notoriously hostile environment.<\/p>\n
Updated: July 15, 2022, 3:30 AM<\/p>\n
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Elon Musk and Starship: eight things to know about the Mars rocket - The National<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Elon Musk is attempting to build the worlds most powerful rocket to take human passengers and cargo to the Moon, Mars and beyond. Continue reading