SpaceX is making more than a thousand changes to the next version of Starship

SpaceX is making more than a thousand changes to the next version of Starship

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SpaceX will unveil several upgrades on its second giant Starship rocket launch. Among these improvements, we can mention a fundamental change in the way the two stages of the rocket are separated, the upgrade of the propulsion system and the reinforced launch platform with better resistance against the ignition of the 33 main rocket engines.

According to Orez Technica report, Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX recently said, “There are actually a lot of changes, over a thousand, between the last Starship flight and the next one. As a result, I think the probability of success of the upcoming flight and reaching the orbit is much higher than the previous flight. Maybe 60%. It depends on the stage of separation [مراحل موشک] “How well do we do?”

Musk discussed some of the changes to the Starship rocket in his conversation last week with Ashley Vance, the American journalist explained on Space Twitter. The next Starship rocket and its upgraded launch pad at the Starbase facility in South Texas should be ready for the next test flight within the next six weeks, he said. This is our best estimate at the moment.”

The Starship rocket is designed to be completely reusable, and SpaceX plans to use it to carry satellites into orbit, build fuel tankers and space fuel depots, and eventually carry cargo and crew to the Moon and Mars. SpaceX’s long-term goal is to replace the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon passenger capsule with Starship.

SpaceX officials were pleased with the results of Starship’s first full test flight on April 20. In that flight, the starship reached an altitude of approximately 38 kilometers and went out of control after several engines failed and the missile guidance system was lost. In that test launch, with the rocket taking off 120 meters from the ground and producing almost 15 million pounds of thrust from the Raptor engines, the record for the largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever flown was set in the name of Starship.

Starship is divided into two parts. The booster stage called Super Heavy with 33 Raptor engines designed to propel the rocket into the Earth’s atmosphere and the upper stage with 6 engines or the Starship, which after separating from the Super Heavy, undertakes the task of reaching orbital speed. On operational missions, the starship’s upper stage can be used as a fuel tanker, cargo carrier, or crew cabin.

One of the most important changes that SpaceX applies to the design of the Starship is the method of separating the booster from the upper stage; An event that occurs approximately three minutes after takeoff. On a test flight three months earlier, the starship did not reach the separation milestone.

According to Musk, SpaceX is looking to make a late change that will really affect how the phases are separated. This change is using a design called “hot phasing”; This means that when the first stage engines are still on, the upper stage engines are turned on.

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