The Starship spaceship, the tallest and most potent launch vehicle ever built, is about to make its first attempt to orbit the Earth with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The upcoming event is currently stirring quite the buzz, and there’s no wonder why! Musk released a statement along with a video on Twitter, saying:
Starship preparing for launch 🚀 pic.twitter.com/M1pR8rsmYt
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 6, 2023
But there’s more! A further tweet from SpaceX stated that a “wet launch” practice would occur the week beginning Monday, April 10, 2023, with a launch possibly occurring the following week. So, there’s still much time ahead the big event. Until then, let’s find out more about SpaceX’s project.
Starship insights
Everything will start from SpaceX’s famous Starbase on Boca Chica Beach, Texas, Starship, aka Ship 24, will be launched. On the scheduled orbital test flight, a SpaceX Super Heavy and Starship launch vehicle will try to complete one full orbit of the Earth before Starship re-enters the atmosphere and splashes down close to Hawaii, according to Spaceflight Now. The second stage (Starship) will orbit the Earth before a powered, targeted splashdown about 100 km off the northwest coast of Kauai, Hawaii, according to Space Launch Now. The Super Heavy rocket booster will perfectly separate 170 seconds into the flight
The last step includes the return to land, which is roughly 32 km off the shore of the Boca Chica launch site in the Gulf of Mexico.
And there’s more!
DID YOU KNOW: The Starship is a spacecraft that is entirely reusable; it consists of two hardware components that, when combined, are 390 feet tall.
Starship has great expectations for SpaceX; even if we’re still at phase one and Starship has not yet entered orbit, some clients have already reserved trips on the spacecraft the business is building to transport passengers and goods to the moon and Mars. Quite impressive, isn’t it?!
Well, we better believe it because Dennis Tito, an American engineer, and businessman, wishes to travel on a separate Starship circumlunar trip with his wife and other unnamed passengers. What an adventure will be!