Musk says SpaceX can be ready for second starship flight test in 1 or 2 months
22 Apr 2023 11:59am
This handout image provided by SpaceX shows the 164-foot (50-meter) tall Starship spacecraft sits atop the 230-foot tall Super Heavy rocket from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas on April 15, 2023. - On April 17, 2023 SpaceX plans to carry out its first test flight of Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, designed to send astronauts to the Moon and eventually beyond.
The launch is scheduled to take place at 7:00 am (1200 GMT) from the sprawling Texas base of the private space company owned by billionaire Elon Musk. - Pic: AFP
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"Looks like we can be ready to launch again in 1 to 2 months," Musk wrote on Twitter on Friday.
Musk said SpaceX will need to repair the launch pad after the first flight test on Thursday created a big crater underneath the launch mount in Starbase, Texas.
Three months ago, according to Musk, SpaceX started building a massive water-cooled, steel plate to go under the launch mount, but it was not ready in time for the first launch. Musk added that the Starship team thought, based on data from a static fire test, that the original base underneath the launchpad would make it through the first launch.
In early February, SpaceX conducted a static fire test of 31 of the 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster at 50 per cent thrust.
On Thursday, SpaceX carried out the first combined launch of the Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy first stage booster. The spacecraft was deliberately blown up during the test flight after it began to lose altitude when multiple engines failed. The spacecraft climbed to an apogee of about 39 kilometres (24 miles) over the Gulf of Mexico, which is the highest point any Starship spacecraft has reached to-date in the program's history.
The Starship is the centerpiece of SpaceX efforts to develop a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry humans to the Moon and on long-duration flights to Mars and beyond. The system is designed for in-space refueling and the ability to land at destinations across the solar system and return to Earth. -Bernama/Sputnik
