The long-awaited takeoff of SpaceX’s Starship rocket, considered the most powerful ever built, could not be done due to technical problems and the first test flight was delayed by at least 42 hours.
SpaceX technicians working at Elon Musk’s company facilities in Texas withdrew from the launch on March 19. starshipStarting at 8:00 am (13:00 GMT) U.S. Central Time, it has a 150-minute window.
Technicians said they found this a pressurization valve is apparently frozen as a reason to postpone the test, which will be the first test of the rocket designed to take humans to the Moon and Mars.
“We gave up on today’s flight test attempt, the team is working on that. next available opportunity“, SpaceX said in a message on Twitter.
Musk recently took the lead on his own social network account. bad news.
“The booster valve looks like it’s frozen, so if it doesn’t start up soon, will not be published today“, Musk said when engineers reported that there were already technical problems and it was very likely that history could not be written today.
But SpaceX engineers continued the countdown. general text, however, the engines of the 120-meter-long super rocket Starship did not ignite.
“With such a test, success is measured by how much we can learn to inform and increase the probability of success It’s in the future as SpaceX rapidly advances the development of Starship,” the company said about today’s experience.
The billionaire took to Twitter shortly after the postponement was approved, stating that he “learned a lot today” and that the rocket was already being unloaded. “Try again in a few days.”
Launch is now delayed in principle until Wednesday, but we’ll still have to wait to find out exactly when the next attempt will be.
After many years of preparation by SpaceX, last Friday Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) The US government, which is responsible for commercial rocket launch licenses in the US, has given approval for the Starship’s first test flight.
departure area, Brownsville (Texas), air traffic was restricted today in order to avoid problems in the rocket launch operation.
Musk’s company describes the Starship spacecraft, collectively called Starship, and the Super Heavy rocket as a reusable transportation system designed to transport both crew and cargo into Earth orbit. Moon, Mars and beyond.
Starship with a diameter of 9 meters, 150 tons completely reusable according to company calculations.
The goal is to make interplanetary journeys in the future. 100 people on board.
The booster rocket, in this first failed testit would have crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff, but it is intended to recover vehicles in the future, landing them vertically at the same launch location.
Until today’s launch, the largest rocket in aviation history, Saturn V your missions Apollo At just over 110 meters, it has already been surpassed by this new project.