{"id":36293,"date":"2024-06-11T08:26:29","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T08:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/spacex-starship-makes-breakthrough-ocean-landing\/"},"modified":"2024-06-11T08:26:31","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T08:26:31","slug":"spacex-starship-makes-breakthrough-ocean-landing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/spacex-starship-makes-breakthrough-ocean-landing\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX Starship makes breakthrough ocean landing"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

\n
By\u00a0Jonathan Amos,\u00a0<\/span>@BBCAmos<\/a>,\u00a0Science correspondent<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Watch: SpaceX’s Starship makes a successful launch and splashdown<\/figcaption><\/p>\n
\n

Elon Musk’s mammoth new rocket system has returned to Earth in a groundbreaking fourth test flight that culminated in a first-ever soft ocean landing for the Starship vehicle.<\/p>\n

The aim was to get the rocket’s upper section – the Ship – to make a controlled return into the atmosphere and then to ditch in the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n

And it achieved its objective, descending broadly intact all the way to the sea surface. Video from the vehicle indicated it was falling apart at the end, but still operating.<\/p>\n

“Splashdown confirmed! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting fourth flight test of Starship!” the company said on X.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the flight, the lower booster part of the rocket was brought back down to the Gulf of Mexico, to hover just above the water.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s also a big step forward from previous test flights when the booster was destroyed in flight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Thursday’s mission was the latest stage in the American entrepreneur and his SpaceX company’s quest to develop a fully and rapidly re-useable orbital rocket system – something that would be a world first.<\/p>\n

Starship launches from an R&D facility at Boca Chica, a small town on the Texas coastline.<\/p>\n

The initial stages of the ascent followed the same profile as the three prior test outings, with the Ship and booster separating two and three-quarter minutes after leaving the ground.<\/p>\n

While the Ship pressed on out over the Atlantic, the lower-stage of the rocket headed back to a drop point near shore.<\/p>\n

Using its engines, the booster deftly brought itself to a stop above the sea surface before pitching over. The manoeuvre was a prelude to future landings back at Boca Chica itself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"SPACEXSPACEX<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

As the Ship came back through the atmosphere, it experienced extreme temperatures<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

The Ship’s difficulty is that it flies higher and faster, which means when it comes home it is exposed to the blistering temperatures of re-entry.<\/p>\n

A colourful plasma – super-heated, ionised gas – was seen to envelop the vehicle as it dived deeper into the atmosphere. Late into the descent, heat-protection tiles started to come away; some structural elements began to glow red hot; and the camera view became obscured when the lens cracked.<\/p>\n

But even in this ragged state, the Ship still managed to execute a virtual landing on water. Quite how finessed that landing was, future analysis of the data will tell.<\/p>\n

Overall, however, this mission marked significant progress for Mr Musk and SpaceX<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Despite loss of many tiles and a damaged flap, Starship made it all the way to a soft landing in the ocean! Congratulations @SpaceX team on an epic achievement!!” Mr Musk wrote on X.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"SPACEXSPACEX<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Super Heavy booster was brought to a hover stop just above the Gulf’s waters<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

Starship dwarfs all previous rocket systems.<\/p>\n

The 33 engines at its base produce 74 meganewtons of thrust. To put that in context, the US space agency’s (Nasa) biggest rocket – the Space Launch System, or SLS – produces 39 meganewtons off the pad, and that’s over 20% more than the old space shuttle system could generate.<\/p>\n

If SpaceX engineers can perfect Starship, it will be revolutionary.<\/p>\n

It’s intended to operate much like an aeroplane that can be refuelled and put back in the air in quick order.<\/p>\n

This capability, along with the heft to carry more than a hundred tonnes to orbit in one go, would radically lower the cost of space activity and make possible new types of activity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"Comparison<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

For Elon Musk, Starship is key to realising his long-held ambition of taking people and supplies to Mars to build a human settlement. It will also assist his Starlink project which is establishing a global network of broadband internet satellites.<\/p>\n

There are thousands of Starlink spacecraft in orbit already, but later models will be larger and heavier and Starship will be needed to get them to space.<\/p>\n

Among the keenest observers of the test flights in Texas is Nasa.<\/p>\n

Starship is critical to the agency’s Artemis programme to put astronauts back on the Moon this decade. A version of Starship would act as the landing craft, taking the crew from lunar orbit down to the surface – and then lifting them back off again. SpaceX, however, will first have to show it can produce a safe and reliable vehicle before astronauts are permitted to climb aboard.<\/p>\n

Nasa has scheduled late 2026 for when it would like to see boots back on the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

“Congratulations @SpaceX on Starship’s successful test flight this morning! We are another step closer to returning humanity to the Moon through #Artemis – then looking onward to Mars,” said Nasa administrator Bill Nelson.<\/p>\n

In other space news on Thursday, the Boeing company’s new astronaut capsule docked with the International Space Station (ISS). Known as Starliner, the vehicle is on its first crewed test flight.<\/p>\n

After experiencing some technical difficulties with the operation of small thrusters, the capsule drove itself on to an attachment point on the front of the ISS at 17:34 GMT.<\/p>\n

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will stay just over the week in orbit before bringing Starliner home to a landing in the southwestern US, most probably White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"SPACEXSPACEX<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n
\n
\"EPAEPA<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

As with earlier test flights, large crowds had gathered to watch the lift-off<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n