Spacex held one of the first launches of the StarShip spacecraft prototype in 2021. The STARSHIP SN9 apparatus started from the company's cosmodrome, located near the village of Boca Chika, which is located in Texas. The ship successfully rose to a height of 10 kilometers, turned off the engines, conducted aerodynamic braking and re-turned on to return the vertical position and land. But during the landing, problems arose and the ship exploded - the video has already been published on the Internet. Despite the explosion, the SPACEX leadership still considers the test successful, because the landing was not the main task of the company. As part of the test, she wanted to find out the performance of completely other systems, but what? Let's deal with.
Another explosion of the STARSHIP ship
The results of testing the prototype STARSHIP SN9 became known on the night of February 3. Approximately 5 minutes the ship reached a 10-kilometer height, after which he accepted a horizontal position and began to decline. It was so conceived, because Spacex believes that in this position the device easier makes an aerodynamic decline. Ideally, approaching the surface of the earth, the ship should again take a vertical position and land. During the test, he was really able to straighten up at an altitude of 1.5 kilometers, only in seconds before the touch with the Earth he exploded. The flight lasted 6 minutes 26 seconds. It happened almost the same with the prototype on December 10, 2020 - we have a material about it.The moment of the explosion is shown for about 6 minutes
Despite the explosion, the test is considered successful. The premature broadcast announced, it was another magnificent flight to a height of more than 10 kilometers. As part of the test, the company first of all wanted to check whether the engines can switch to the use of fuel from landing tanks. She also checked the work of the flap - "Wings", which help the ship to keep balance during the flight. Officially, the purpose of the test sounded like "Checking the control of the ship with supersonic return"
Ship Features StarShip SN9
The StarShip SN9 ship launch was to be made in January 2021, but at first he was transferred due to the need to replace the engines, and then due to bad weather conditions. The tested prototype became the first one who was collected outside the starting site. Pre-flight tests of engines occupied noticeably less than before. After the assembly outside the starting complex, the design was neatly moved to it with two pre-installed motors. According to Ilona Mask, the "more mature" engines were installed in the StarShip SN9 prototype. Also, engineers improved the tightness of the nasal fairing and more accurately folded the wires.
An interesting fact: not methane, but helium, was not methane, and helium for superphanage fuel tanks (creating overpressure). From methane temporarily refused, because in December, the prototype StarShip SN8 was crashes precisely because of it. But this is a temporary solution - there is no permanent option yet.
As we have already found out earlier, in the future, the test of the prototypes of the StarShip ship will be held more often. In the Spacex private spacecraft, there are two starting platforms that can be used simultaneously. At the moment, the company has almost collected the prototype of the STARSHIP SN10 ship. In parallel, engineers lead the prototypes of SN11 and SN12 - perhaps, we will follow their flights already in 2021.
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When the ship learns to quickly return to the vertical position and carefully sit on the ground, a new test stage should begin. In January, it became known that the STARSHIP spacecraft with the Super Heavy rocket will be multiple. When returning to Earth, it will be caught by a special tower with "clanshes", which will reduce the risk of accident. Also, this design will facilitate the transportation of rocket to another place for inspection, small repair and reuse. Designers have already drawn, how the Super Heavy rocket landing will look. You can see the video and find out the details of the new Spacex technology on this link.