As it opens this morning, at MilanMilan in Italy, the 74e edition of International Astronautical Congress, SpaceXSpaceX reached a crucial milestone this Sunday with the fifth Starship demonstration flight, successfully achieving three major objectives: separationseparationtheft suborbitalsuborbital and the recovery of the two parts of the launcher. Obviously, we will have to wait for the analysis of the flight data before drawing definitive conclusions on the performance of this mission.
An ambitious objective: recovery of the Super Heavy booster
The main purpose of this flight was to recover the Super Heavy booster, an essential operation for the Starship’s rapid reuse ambitions. The capture of the booster by the Mechazilla tower and its two chopsticksused as “vices” on which the stage is placed, was a real feat, highlighting the technological prowess of SpaceX. This recovery capacity is key to reducing delays between launches. The ultimate goal is to allow the booster to return to the pad and quickly reattach the spacecraft for future launches, potentially in just a few hours.
The bold maneuver appeared to exceed expectations, including those of SpaceX executives. Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, expressed her enthusiasm about the social networkssocial networksemphasizing the unpredictability, but the rejoicing of this feat. Prior to the launch, several industry experts were cautiously optimistic, based on past performance and landing accuracy.
Performances du Starship
The Starship vehicle reached a maximum altitude of 212 kilometers and had a nice spaceflight, although it did not orbit – that was not the goal. As for the heat shield, which had shown signs of early wear during previous missions, it was improved taking into account the lessons learned from these flights. This time, he apparently fulfilled his role well. After its flight, the craft made a controlled landing in the ocean, where it exploded shortly after impact, as predicted. There were no plans to recover the Starship on dry land.
Environmental Considerations
This launch was preceded by obtaining a flight license issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), following an environmental assessment. This license, which also authorizes a sixth demonstration flight, has generated controversy due to concerns about the impact of launches on the local environment and associated compliance requirements. Although the analysis concluded that no significant impact is expected, it requires SpaceX to monitor and evaluate the effects of launches, particularly on wildlifewildlife local. This reflects increased awareness of the environmental impacts of space activities.
SpaceX’s innovative development method
The principle “ fail fast, learn fast » perfectly sums up SpaceX’s iterative and pragmatic approach. By accepting failure as an integral part of the development process, the company moved forward quickly with its technological innovations. Unlike other launcher manufacturers – such as ArianeGroup which is developing Ariane 6 – which favor exhaustive qualification in ground conditions before any flight, SpaceX adopts a strategy of frequent testing in real conditions. This makes it possible to validate each subsystem by composing in various scenarios, thus accelerating the development process, despite in-flight failures as was the case during previous demonstration flights.
This success represents significant progress, but many challenges remain, including the transfer of fuel between two Starships in orbit. The progress made by SpaceX solidifies its position as a pioneer in the aerospace industry. Above all, they could transform the future of space travel and human exploration, paving the way for future missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond.
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