Starship, the most powerful rocket of all time, which must return the Americans to the Moon and which Elon Musk hopes to see one day leave for Mars, perfectly fulfilled its contract, Thursday June 6, during its fourth flight of essay. The SpaceX machine took off – empty – from its “Starbase” near the village of Boca Chica (Texas). It carried out most of the planned operations, while the previous test flight was marked by the disintegration of the rocket during its re-entry into the atmosphere. After a little more than an hour of suspense, the boss of SpaceX effusively slammed the hands of those in charge of the control center, from where he followed the flight in the company of one of his children.
Thirty-two of the 33 Raptor engines of the “Super Heavy” first stage ignited in unison at 2:50 p.m. (Paris time) to propel the 121 meters and 5,000 tonnes of the rocket skyward. Designed to be reusable, this stage then detached to fall towards the Gulf of Mexico, slowing down at the last moment in a mock landing: a return to the starting point, where a tower equipped with mechanical arms could accommodate it, was not yet planned at this stage of the machine’s development.
During the previous test, contact was lost while still more than 400 meters above sea level. This time the images broadcast live showed its temporary stabilization above the waves, sparking cries of enthusiasm from the SpaceX teams. Super Heavy had also previously successfully ejected the interface with the upper stage, only to become lighter during this descent.
Designed to be fully recoverable
Meanwhile, the upper part of the rocket, called Starship for convenience, continued its journey, propelled to an altitude of more than 200 km by its six engines, to reach a speed exceeding 26,000 km/h, below the satellite speed (28,440 km/h). The ambition was, after a short cruise flight in space, to successfully re-enter the atmosphere, which had failed during the previous attempt, on March 14.
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After a few turning maneuvers, Starship slowed down by presenting its side covered in thermal protection to the particles of the upper atmosphere, and by controlling its attitude using four small independent fins. The gas heated by friction appeared under the eye of the onboard cameras in the form of an orange ionized halo, from an altitude of around a hundred kilometers. At an altitude of 53 km, white-hot fin fragments began to break off, and the debris damaged the camera that made it possible to follow the flight. However, the telemetry data continued to be transmitted until the end.
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