NASA is happy. Winds of hope began to fly this past week, as two rockets took off from the United States on different space missions that promise to consolidate the American space plan for different purposes.
From continuing to contribute astronauts to work on the International Space Station (ISS) and continue studying the behavior of human beings outside the Earth, until looking A new manned moon landing is getting closer and closer, after more than 50 years.
Last Wednesday, after six failed attempts and several delays that accumulated years, the new Boeing space capsule called Starliner took off with crew.
The American aerospace company achieved a correct takeoff of two astronauts to the orbital complex, with NASA’s eyes on this mission, since years ago it had signed a contract 10 years ago to develop this ship that opens up travel options to the ISS. beyond the consolidated capsule Crew Dragon SpaceX.
In September 2014, NASA announced that SpaceX and Boeing would each receive an agreement as part of the Commercial Crew Carrying Capacity contracts. The plan was to operate two independent spacecraft simultaneously as a form of redundancy in case something happened to one of the vehicles, rendering it out of commission.
Boeing received a $4.2 billion contract in 2014. SpaceX also landed one, worth $2.6 billion. The first uncrewed test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon occurred in March 2019 with the Demo-1 mission, which docked to the ISS uncrewed and returned safely.
Demo-2 saw the return of US crew launch capability on May 30, 2020, safely carrying Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the ISS and back.
With this new Starliner space trip, the US Space Agency consolidates its project to expand habitability in space. The astronauts designated for this first Boeing manned space mission were Wilmore and Suni Williams of the POT aboard an Atlas V rocket from the United Launch Alliance (ULA) company.
In total, the vehicle consists of a capsule and a service module. The capsule measures 4.5 meters (15 feet) in diameter, which is slightly larger than an Apollo capsule, but smaller than the Orion capsule that NASA is using as part of the Artemis program.
The capsule can put a maximum of seven people into orbit. While this flight will only have a crew of two, the plan is to launch operational missions with a crew of four, with an optional fifth seat. Starling is capable of remaining in orbit, according to Boeing, for seven months.
Combined with service module, Starliner is 5 meters (16.5 feet) tall. The service module, which remains attached to the capsule until just before reentry, contains four launch abort engines designed by Aerojet Rocketdyne. They are intended to move the spacecraft away in case of a problem on the pad or during flight.
The service module is also equipped with 28 motors with reaction control system (RCS) for orbit maneuvers. These are in addition to the 20 Orbital Maneuvering and Attitude Control (OMAC) engines used to maneuver and separate the capsule. Starliner’s solar panels are also located on the aft side of the service module. The capsule is also equipped with 12 of its own RCS thrusters.
On June 6, Starliner arrived at the International Space Station, with some problems to connect, after five of its 28 reaction control thrusters failed. But the mission team returned four of those impacted boosters to service, and Starliner was cleared to approach the ISS a few hours later.
The mega rocket Starship of SpaceX, the largest spacecraft in the world, It made its fourth test launch, culminating a successful flight and landing last Thursday.
Starship rose from the Starbase space station, located in Boca Chica, Texas, United States, with the power of its 33 Raptor engines that achieve thrust of 7,600 tons of thrust to lift the 122-meter spacecraft out of the Earth’s atmosphere.
“The fourth test of the Starship integrated system, the 70-meter-high carrier rocket called Super Heavy and the Starship itself, another 50 meters high, demonstrates, once again, the paradigm shift that SpaceX has generated in regards not only to access to space but to astronautics as a whole. The largest and most powerful rocket of all time has been tested for the fourth time, far surpassing what happened in the first 3 tests,” he explained to Infobae Diego Bagú, astronomer and specialist in space missions.
The space company had made only three test flights– A failed debut of just 4 minutes in April 2023. That mission ended with a controlled detonation of the vehicle traveling out of control.
Also tube of the takeoff problem, when The ship destroyed the launch pad by opening a crater beneath Starbase’s orbital launch pad, prompting SpaceX to install a water-slinging metal plate as heat-absorbing reinforcement.
A second flight in November of that year also failed to reach space after an 8-minute flight and a difficult separation of its two stages.
Flight 2, in November 2023, ended prematurely and both parts of the rocket exploded in the atmosphere, unable to complete their journeys.
And the last launch of Starship Flight 3, on March 18 of this yearwhich reached space for the first time before the vehicle and its Super Heavy booster were lost without being able to land in a controlled manner. The ship was able to reach the limits of the Earth’s atmosphere, but was unable to successfully complete its descent from a height of 160 kilometers and at a speed of 26,000 km/h.
“All the objectives set by Elon Musk’s company have been met, to the point that the challenges to be achieved in what will be the next test are already being considered: neither more nor less than capturing the gigantic first stage (the Super Heavy of 70 meters) “hugging it” with the colossal structures of the “Mechazila”, a gigantic tower-shaped structure that will function, in the near future, as a launch and return platform for said rockets. It’s not science fiction. We are witnessing it, live,” said Bagú.
And he concluded: “Just a few hours ago SpaceX shared through its account on the social network X a video of the descent of the Super Heavy in the Gulf of Mexico, as planned. This added to the incredible video images of Starship’s re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere and its subsequent splashdown in the Indian Ocean, It allows us to appreciate how close we are to truly beginning to experience the return of human beings to the Moon and, in a good couple of years in the future, the long-awaited trip to the red planet. It was a dream since childhood on the part of a very particular entrepreneur. We are observing how, at astonishingly rapid steps, it is approaching its fulfillment.”
Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, was visibly excited. So much so that he wrote on the social network X: “Successful soft landing of the Starship Super Heavy booster rocket!”
The success of this landing 6 minutes and 43 seconds after takeoff is based on the spirit and reason for being of SpaceX: the reuse of launched material.
The thing is that the Starship megarocket, like the family of the successful Falcon 9, which among other features It allows astronauts to travel to the International Space Station or place different types of satellites, they are based on its launch being completely reusable, which implies a revolutionary advance in space flights and an economy of expenses that allow more consecutive flights and less pollution for our planet.
“Despite the loss of many chips and a damaged flap, Starship managed a soft landing in the ocean! Congratulations to the SpaceX team on an epic achievement,” Musk wrote in X.
SpaceX and NASA are very happy with the progress made with each launch. And this chain already promises more adventures. In fact, weeks ago, SpaceX began testing the spacecraft’s engines. Starship 5 test to be launched in less than three months.
