Things are going very well for SpaceX. The space company had its most successful Starship launch to date a few days ago. And, building on that milestone, the company now looks to the future. He does so knowing that, in his hands, is possibly the destiny of the space conquest to which entities such as NASA aspire.
If the fourth Starship launch went well, it could be assumed that we are facing a future in which space travel is going to be much easier. Because, as we already said at the time, if Elon Musk’s company managed to overcome this new challenge in its testing phase, it would be very close to advancing as much as humanity needs.
This was the fourth launch
Although the first two Starship launches did not go very well and the third could be improved, the fourth produced a very promising result. Both the Super Heavy space booster and the main ship structure took off successfully, fulfilled their flight objective and then fell into the ocean in a completely controlled manner.
However, Elon Musk has a new mission for Starship. Now that he has managed to get the two parts to land in a controlled manner, his goal is to be able to capture the propellant at the moment of fall so that its state remains intact and can be reused continuously. This will mean, for space travel, a very important reduction in costs.
More trips to the Moon and Mars
In the long term, Starship will be the ship that will help astronauts from NASA, and possibly any other interested organization, reach the Moon and Mars. But Musk is aware of the expense of launching one of these ships and how expensive a space program ends up being. If they envision the future of space conquest as full-blown colonization, they will have to send a lot of people. The astronauts will possibly end up being accompanied by professionals from all kinds of specialties. And that will mean that a notable number of ships will have to be sent.
Elon Musk
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Starship booster makes soft landing in water, next landing will be caught by the tower arms https://t.co/soB7l1Gdsi
June 10, 2024 • 18:32
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Investing in building a booster and ship for each launch would not be a viable plan. This is one of the reasons why humanity has not returned to the Moon in so long. SpaceX knows this and, that is why it is working so hard to get Starship technology ready. If the ship manages to fly effectively and the propellant is recovered on each flight, it will be a “piece of cake” to be able to send a large number of astronauts to both the Moon and Mars.
For this reason, the next Starship launch, which still has no date, will integrate a new element into the equation: the recovery system. The arms that the SpaceX launch tower has in Boca Chica, in the United States, will be used with the intention of trying to catch the booster in flight. The company says that, in this way, they will be able to completely dispense with the idea of manufacturing a landing system for the booster.
The launches will therefore be both cheaper and lighter. By reducing the weight due to the absence of the landing system, the ship will be able to do without part of its fuel and this will benefit the adjustment of costs in general. Taking into account how well SpaceX’s plans are going lately, we would have to be optimistic and think that this landing system will also work for them. It is possible that they will test it this year in 2024, so the day when astronauts will return to the Moon and visit Mars is getting closer and closer. For the moment, you can see a video as a simulation of the use of the landing arms above these lines.
