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SpaceX’s third test launch of its Starship mega-rocket went off without a hitch.
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The success comes after two previous test flights blew up last year.
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SpaceX has made a series of upgrades to the rocket system that helped it finally reach space.
The saying goes, “Third time is a charm” and for SpaceX, it certainly was.
SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket managed to go to space for the first time early Thursday morning after two previous attempts ended in spectacular explosions last year.
The two previous explosions were crucial in helping SpaceX improve the technology it succeeded on Thursday.
“Many of the innovations we’ve developed have come from our failures, and they teach us how to avoid the dangers of spaceflight,” said Siva Bharadvaj, a space operations engineer at SpaceX, during Thursday’s live launch.
After the second explosion in November, the Federal Aviation Administration tasked SpaceX with 17 corrective actions.
They included hardware redesigns, engine analyses, and robustness updates for its first stage Super Heavy booster and advanced Starship rocket.
“It’s a tough business, but all this testing, all the iterative design, allows us to make the design better and better,” he said.
More than a dozen SpaceX rocket upgrades
About seven minutes into the November test launch, Starship began a pre-planned dump of excess liquid oxygen, which started a fire that eventually caused the ship to self-detonate, according to SpaceNews.
Therefore, it was intended to avoid a similar fire in preparation for Thursday’s launch. SpaceX made some adjustments to make it happen.
First, SpaceX eliminated the need to dump liquid oxygen before the end of the engine.
Additionally, the company said Starship caught fire due to a leak that occurred at the same time as the liquid oxygen dumping. Therefore, SpaceX made several hardware changes to reduce the risk of leaks, according to SpaceNews.
SpaceX also equipped its newest Starship prototype with additional fire protection and made flammability analysis updates to reduce fire risk, according to an FAA statement.
The entire effort failed because there was no fire during Thursday’s launch. But that was only part of the changes. SpaceX also made several upgrades to improve engine and flight control.
For example, SpaceX updated the Super Heavy’s engine control algorithms and added large new slosh shields to its liquid oxygen tank to reduce propellant from leaking too much during the booster’s challenging flip maneuver, according to SpaceNews.
For Starship, SpaceX added three new rectangular liquid oxygen vents to the underside of the engine skirt that aided in attitude control.
In addition, the cowbell diverts the two large header steamers on the spacecraft’s nose cone to direct the flow of ventilation steam downwards, which aided in attitude control.
Strengthened data link
After Starship took off, it sent spectacular views of space back to Earth, maintaining a strong data link with mission control for most of its spaceflight.
Starship even captured stunning footage of the spacecraft’s re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
That’s all thanks to upgrades to the rocket’s Starlink terminals and the addition of new Starlink satellite dishes.
More improvements to come
While we don’t know when the next Starship mission will be launched, it’s likely that the new iteration of this mega-rocket will come with more upgrades.
Although this was the most successful Starship test launch to date, not all mission objectives were achieved. After separating from the Starship, the Super Heavy booster lost control and began to fall towards Earth. Ultimately, this resulted in a hard splash, instead of a gentle splash, as SpaceX had intended, according to NASA’s Space Flight.
In addition, Starship was lost during re-entry, meaning SpaceX will have to conduct a disaster investigation like its previous November flight to determine what went wrong, per the NASA space flights.
Despite this disaster, Starship’s third test flight was a resounding success. SpaceX is used to fires, tumbles, and unexpected explosions – and it’s not afraid of them either.
“If you’re not failing, you’re not learning and improving the design,” SpaceX Quality Systems Engineer, Kate Tice, said during the Thursday live stream of the launch.
SpaceX officials said the company plans to complete at least six more Starship test flights this year, subject to regulatory approval. Reuters reported.
Read the original article on Business Insider
