SpaceX made a big step towards re -using the Starship super heavy booster

SpaceX has problems with the upper stage of Starship After failures from behindBut engineers make remarkable progress with the huge rocket booster.

The most visible sign of Spacex Do forward with the first stage of Starship – called Super Heavy – game at 9:40 am local time (10:40 pm EDT; 14:40 UTC) on Thursday on the Starbase Start Site of South Texas. With an unmistakable blast of orange exhaust gases, the SpaceX launches a super heavy booster that is already up to the edge of the space. The burning lasted approximately eight seconds.

This was the first time SpaceX has had a test “proven” flight super heavy booster and paves the way for this particular rocket-a booster with a booster 14 to fly again soon. SpaceX confirmed Definition of booster 14 which before Started and returned to the ground in JanuaryIt will happen at the Next Starship Launch with a static fire test on Thursday, Booster 14 seems to be closer to the willingness of the flight than any Boosters at the SpaceX factory, which is a short distance from the launch site.

SpaceX said 29 of the 33 Raptor engines with Booster methane have been proven on flights. “The first super heavy reuse will be a step towards our zero -touch target,” X. wrote Spacex.

Successful shaping of the super heavy booster would be an important point for the Starship program, while engineers are struggling with problems on the upper stage of the rocket known simply as the ship.

What difference

Super Heavy engines are capable of producing nearly 17 million pounds of thrust, twice the power of NASA’s Saturn V rocket, which sent astronauts to the moon. Super Heavy is probably the most sophisticated rocket booster ever built. It is certainly the biggest. To find out how big this booster is, imagine the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet fuselage standing at the end.

Spacex is now launching eight large Starship tests, with a super heavy booster and Starship top, arranged together to form a rocket that rises 404 feet (123.1 meters) high. The part of the rocket booster has performed well so far, with seven consecutive successful launches after failure in the Starship debut flight.

Most recently, SpaceX has restored three super heavy amplifiers in four attempts. SpaceX has extensive experience in the recovery and reuse of Falcon 9 amplifiers. The total number of Falcon crab missiles is now 426.

Spacex again used the Falcon 9 booster for the first time in March 2017. It was an operating flight with a mission communication satellite valued at several hundred million dollars.

Prior to the most important Falcon 9, he led eight years ago, SpaceX spent nearly a year of repairing and re -testing the rocket after returning from its first mission. The rocket picked up a bigger mileage on the ground than on a flight, first returning to its base in Florida on a spacex ship and then moved by truck at the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, for in -depth checks and renovation.

After the engineers finished this job, they transported the booster to the SpaceX test site in McGregor, Texas, for test animals, and then finally returned the rocket to Florida for final startup preparations.

There will be no such trip to the super heavy booster. First of all, it is much more difficult to transport from the shorter, greater Falcon 9. The Super Heavy design also has improvements informed by lessons extracted from the Falcon 9 program. This helped Spacex become super heavy at the top of binding in less than three months.