SpaceX is launching Starship into orbit on Friday in its boldest test yet: a 22-hour flight that aims to recapture the entire rocket in a move meant to accelerate moon and Mars travel.
asserted
that → launch → travel
If all goes well, the massive booster will return to its Texas pad six minutes after blasting off and the bullet-shaped spacecraft will steer there the next day.
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spacecraft → go → pad
Both will be plucked from midair by mechanical arms secured to the launch tower.
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Both → pluck → tower
Everything was on track for Friday’s planned late afternoon launch of the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket, pending Federal Aviation Administration approval.
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Everything → plan → approval
If Elon Musk and his team succeed, it will be the first time every single piece of a rocket that is launched into orbit gets retrieved for the purpose of recycling.
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that → succeed → recycling
Musk sees this leading to the kind of fast and consistent launch rates necessary for building moon bases and sending people to Mars.
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this → see → Mars
“It’s hard to describe how I’m going to feel when we pull this off,” SpaceX’s Kiko Dontchev, vice president of launch, said at a NASA tech summit last week at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.
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Dontchev → ’ → Center
“It’s so incredibly exciting.
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It → ’ → ?
It’s such a feat of engineering.”
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It → ’ → engineering
Once in orbit, Starship will deliver 26 of the company’s most advanced Starlink satellites.
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Starship → deliver → satellites
The plan is for Starship to complete 15 laps around the world at an altitude of around 170 miles (275 kilometers) before heading back to the launch site for Saturday’s grand finale.
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Starship → complete → finale
SpaceX has already made three booster grabs at the company’s sprawling Starbase near the U.S.-Mexico border.
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SpaceX → make → border
This will be the first attempt to capture the upgraded version that stretches 236 feet (72 meters) — the production model for moon and Mars travel.
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that → capture → travel
It will also be the first time the company attempts to catch the spacecraft, which spans 171 feet (52 meters).
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which → attempt → feet
The spacecraft portion of the 14 previous Starships ended up in the ocean, either by design at flight’s end or by accident in a stream of flaming wreckage.
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portion → end → wreckage
During the first full-scale test flight in 2023, multiple engines failed to ignite and the tumbling rocket’s self-destruct system was activated.
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system → fail → 2023
The last test, in September, was the first to reach orbit, but SpaceX did not try to recover any of the rocket stages.
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SpaceX → reach → stages
SpaceX plans to start launching Starships from Florida within a few months and from Louisiana in a few years.
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SpaceX → plan → years
Scaled-up infrastructure, combined with full rocket reusability, is “how you go from zero launches to 10 to 100 to 1,000 to 10,000 to 100,000,” Dontchev said.
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Dontchev → scale → 100,000
SpaceX’s smaller Falcon rockets will continue to fly from Cape Canaveral, carrying astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA and from California carrying Starlinks.
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rockets → continue → Starlinks
Satellites also will keep hitching Falcon rides for now.
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Satellites → keep → rides
Musk wants Starships to eventually replace Falcons.
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Starships → want → Falcons
We still throw that second stage away every single flight.
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We → throw → stage
Starship, we’re going to catch both the first stage and second stage,” Dontchev said.
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Dontchev → go → stage
NASA is paying SpaceX billions of dollars to land Artemis astronauts on the moon with Starships.
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NASA → pay → Starships
NASA expects to decide a year before the Artemis IV lunar landing — the first by astronauts in more than half a century — whether to get the moonwalkers to the surface with Musk’s Starship or Bezos’ Blue Moon.
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NASA → expect → Starship
During next summer’s Artemis III mission, astronauts will practice docking their capsule with a Blue Moon and then a Starship in orbit around Earth.
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astronauts → practice → Earth
That will set the stage for an Artemis moon touchdown as early as 2028.
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That → set → 2028
The Associated Press’ health and science coverage receives financial support from the AP Fund for Journalism and private foundations.
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coverage → receive → Journalism
The Aporia
