First orbital flight scheduled for early 2022 for SpaceX's Starship mega-rocket
Elon Musk said Wednesday, November 17 that the Starship mega rocket, developed by his company SpaceX and notably selected by NASA for the return of Americans to the Moon, would attempt its first orbital flight early next year . “The first orbital flight, we hope to do in January,” he said during an intervention before scientists from the National Academy of Sciences, before adding later that the test could also take place “ maybe in February. "There are a lot of risks associated with this first launch, so I wouldn't say it's likely to be successful, but I think we will make a lot of progress," he added.
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Starship has already made several suborbital flights: after several tests ending in impressive explosions, SpaceX finally managed to land the ship, designed to be reusable. For this orbital test, it will this time be decked out with an ultra-powerful first stage called Super Heavy. Authorization from the US federal civil aviation regulator (FAA) is expected "around the end of the year", said Elon Musk. “We will have completed the launch pad and the launch tower this month, then we will do a series of checks in December,” he detailed. "We hope to attempt ten launches next year," the boss also said. "Maybe more." He also estimated that Starship would be operational to transport loads outside the framework of tests “in 2023”.
Nasa has chosen to bet on Starship to become the lander used as part of its Artemis program to return to the Moon. The ship will have to be placed in orbit around the Moon upstream, and the astronauts arriving on board their capsule will board it so that it takes them and brings them back from the lunar surface, in 2025 at the earliest. But the boss of SpaceX sees even further for this “largest rocket ever designed”: “What we seek to develop with Starship is a generalized means of transport for large quantities of masses or people (... ) anywhere in the solar system”.
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During his hour-long talk broadcast live on Youtube, the SpaceX founder hammered home his vision: “I think it's extremely important that we try to become a multiplanetary species as soon as possible.” Because "in the end, (...) the Earth will become uninhabitable", he declared. SpaceX has thus set up a factory to produce copies of Starship on a very large scale. "I think to become multiplanetary, we will need 1,000 ships or something like that," said Elon Musk.
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