It will be the second Starship launch after the inaugural flight ended in disaster, with the rocket exploding four minutes after liftoff on April 20. The success of today's mission will depend on the schedule for the astronauts' return to the lunar surface in the coming years.
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It is the tallest and most powerful rocket in the world. It is 120 meters tall and will be able to send loads of up to 150 tons into low Earth orbit. By comparison, NASA's Saturn V, which sent Apollo astronauts to the Moon and was the largest rocket in history to date, was 111 meters tall and could lift a maximum of 120 tons into orbit.
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The Starship is designed to be reusable, which should lower launch costs when it enters service. It has two main modules. The lower stage, called Super Heavy, is designed to return to the launch pad and land vertically. The upper stage, called Starship, like the rocket as a whole, is a ship that will be able to transport astronauts, satellites or any other cargo and that is also designed to be recovered at the end of the missions.
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Elon Musk has presented the Starship as the rocket that will take the first human beings to Mars. But before that happens, if it ever does, the rocket has other assured uses. For NASA, Starship is the vehicle that will carry the first U.S. astronauts to return to the lunar surface since the Apollo program was canceled in 1972. For SpaceX, the rocket will facilitate the deployment of the next generation of Starlink satellites, larger and more massive than the current ones. In addition, having a rocket that carries out more powerful launches and at a lower cost than any other company will allow SpaceX to establish itself as a leader in the world market for launching satellites.
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In the first launch of the Starship there was a succession of serious failures before the rocket exploded at an altitude of 29 kilometers. The structure of the launch base did not withstand, so a large amount of materials were shot out. Three of the Super Heavy module's 33 engines failed to ignite as they were supposed to, and two more shut down shortly after liftoff. The Starship failed to separate from the Super Heavy module as planned. The rocket's self-destruct system, which should have been activated immediately, took a minute to detonate the device.
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The launch window opens today at 2 p.m. and closes at 2:20 p.m. (Spanish peninsular time). The rocket will take off from the base of Boca Chica, in southern Texas, in the direction of the Atlantic. The two stages of the rocket, which in this test flight will not be recovered, must separate 2'41" after liftoff. The Super Heavy module will fall in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. If the planned plan goes ahead, the Starship will make an almost complete circle around the Earth in 90 minutes and fall into the Pacific north of Hawaii.
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For now, NASA is maintaining the goal of bringing a crew of astronauts into lunar orbit in November 2024 and another to the surface of the satellite in December 2025. Both missions will require NASA to have ready its SLS rocket, with which the astronauts will take off. For the 2025 mission, it will also be necessary for SpaceX to have the Starship ship ready to take astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface. If serious problems arise in today's launch, the schedule will need to be redefined. What is at stake, as the director of NASA, Bill Nelson, has recognized, is "the space race to reach the Moon before China".
