China's burgeoning space program plans to place astronauts on the moon before 2030 and expand the country's orbiting space station, officials said Monday.
China will beat the USA back to the moon, but 2030 is a little ambitious.
I'm not sure I'd call that test a failure. SpaceX learned a lot. And a lot of the systems worked exactly as planned.
The rocket and the launch mount did not collapse under the weight of a full fuel load. Fully fueled, the rocket weighed almost double that of the Saturn V (5000 tonnes vs 3000 tonnes). That's seriously impressive engineering. You have to know what you're doing to have a 5000 tonne rocket resting safely on a ring itself supported by six pylons just a few meters wide each.
The engine failures, likely caused by cement debris at launch bouncing upwards, did not cascade like the N1. The failed engines failed safe, and the rest operated normally and maintained course.
They didn't know if they needed some sort of launch water suppression system. Now they know. Lesson learned.
The rocket cleared the tower and flew straight on its planned course until stage separation was to happen. The guidance systems and engines' TVC seem to be working exactly as intended.
The heat shield tiles only started detaching well after launch. Now they know that launch vibrations are not going to be an issue for the tiles, but airflow is. Lesson learned, time to examine the tile attachment method more closely.
The rocket, with 1st and 2nd stages still attached to each other, did multiple cartwheels and stayed intact until ground control commanded a self-destruct. Most rockets shred themselves to pieces the moment they go broadside to the wind. If Starship could handle tumbling through the air end-over-end while attached to the booster, chances are it's going to be able to handle aerobraking just fine.
I think this was actually a very successful test flight in terms of learning lessons. Didn't make the near-orbit they were hoping, but it got a lot farther than most other prototype rocket launches do. And now they have a gold mine of telemetry to go through.
(Lest anyone thing this is praise of the melon, it's not. It's praise for the engineers and technicians who actually do the real work at SpaceX.)
The Starship test was a failure that will continue to knock things back.
I'm not sure I'd call that test a failure. SpaceX learned a lot. And a lot of the systems worked exactly as planned.
The rocket and the launch mount did not collapse under the weight of a full fuel load. Fully fueled, the rocket weighed almost double that of the Saturn V (5000 tonnes vs 3000 tonnes). That's seriously impressive engineering. You have to know what you're doing to have a 5000 tonne rocket resting safely on a ring itself supported by six pylons just a few meters wide each.
The engine failures, likely caused by cement debris at launch bouncing upwards, did not cascade like the N1. The failed engines failed safe, and the rest operated normally and maintained course.
They didn't know if they needed some sort of launch water suppression system. Now they know. Lesson learned.
The rocket cleared the tower and flew straight on its planned course until stage separation was to happen. The guidance systems and engines' TVC seem to be working exactly as intended.
The heat shield tiles only started detaching well after launch. Now they know that launch vibrations are not going to be an issue for the tiles, but airflow is. Lesson learned, time to examine the tile attachment method more closely.
The rocket, with 1st and 2nd stages still attached to each other, did multiple cartwheels and stayed intact until ground control commanded a self-destruct. Most rockets shred themselves to pieces the moment they go broadside to the wind. If Starship could handle tumbling through the air end-over-end while attached to the booster, chances are it's going to be able to handle aerobraking just fine.
I think this was actually a very successful test flight in terms of learning lessons. Didn't make the near-orbit they were hoping, but it got a lot farther than most other prototype rocket launches do. And now they have a gold mine of telemetry to go through.
(Lest anyone thing this is praise of the melon, it's not. It's praise for the engineers and technicians who actually do the real work at SpaceX.)