SpaceX is about to make a very important flight to complete its path to the Moon. Next May 19 (although it will already be May 20 in Spanish peninsular time), Starship flight 12 will take place. In it will try version 3both from the Super Heavy rocket and from the Starship itself. This third version includes new improvements, which will be vital for many of the future projects of Elon Musk’s company, but above all to become the main private partner that will take the next batch of astronauts to land on the Moon.
Write down the date. On May 19, at 6:30 p.m. EDT, (12:30 a.m., Spanish peninsular time), will be launched Starship version 3. This ship is one of the two candidates to dock with the Orion capsule of the Artemis mission and facilitate the landing of two astronauts on the Moon. At the moment it competes with Blue Origin, whose candidate ship is advancing at a very good paceso it is very important that this mission be completed successfully.
The improvements. Starship version 3 includes many improvements. For starters, the first phase of it, the Super Heavy rocket, will be a little higher. In its last flight it measured 71 meters, while now it will reach 72.3 meters. It will also carry 250 more tons of propellant, reaching a total of 3,650 tons of methane and liquid oxygen.
Continuing with the fuels, its innovative internal conduction system has been redesigned to ignite the 33 engines at the same time and maneuver better. Finally, it should be noted that it includes 3 large aerodynamic control grilles, instead of 4 smaller ones, and that it has a hot separation structure that facilitates the recovery of the rocket.
More about engines. The 33 Raptor 3 engines will replace the 33 Raptor 2 engines, resulting in a thrust of 280 tons each. In version 2 it was only 230 tons. The result will be a total rocket thrust of 9,240 tons.. On the other hand, they are lighter engines, so, despite incorporating improvements in their thermal protection shield and fire suppression system, the set is less heavy.
Ship improvements. In addition to the improvements on the Super Heavy, the Starship will also include major technological advances. For example, its new orbital maneuvering engines will allow the approach and docking maneuvers in orbit that will be so necessary with Artemis to be carried out. It can remain in orbit for up to 48 hours without solar panels and carry a load of 100 tons to it. Version 2 could only carry 35 tons.
This time, the Raptor engines are much more powerful
Journey to quasi-orbit. Like the rest of Starship’s flights, this one will take the ship to something known as quasi-orbit. It means that, although it will be a suborbital flight, energetically it will remain very close to the real orbit. In simpler terms, the ship is ready to go into orbit. However, these tests are aimed at analyzing its reliability. Until this is confirmed, SpaceX does not want to risk leaving a 135-ton object wandering in low orbit.
Guardian Starlinks. One of Starship’s missions in the future will be to continue contributing to increasing the Starlink satellite fleet. Therefore, on test flight 12 will fly with 22 models of these satellites. He will not take them with the rest, but will release them on a trial basis. Although two of these will also have an important mission, since they will be in charge of analyzing the behavior of the thermal study and taking photographs.
This system has a series of dark tiles, which must be kept in place for its proper functioning. Therefore, to ensure that satellites are capable of detecting errors, some tiles have been painted whiteas if they weren’t there. It is a fictitious test error. If they do not locate it, modifications will have to be made.
The end of a short but intense journey. Since it is the first test of this new version, there will not be a recovery on Earthbut the two phases will land for later collection. If all goes well, a landing could be tried on the next flight. Step by step. There are many new things to try.
Images | SpaceX
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