Preparations for SpaceX's first launch of their StarShip
Guys,
I watch Marcus House’s summary of SpaceX activity and plans on YouTube every week (a new one each Saturday). Above is last week’s report, concentrating on preparations for the SpaceX StarShip to make its first flight. Watching this episode would be good preparation for watching that exciting launch.
The recent photo below (not a simulation) shows a dark Starship being lifted into position on top of its first-stage booster.
The Starship is integral to NASA’s plans to return men to the Moon. Its enormous cargo volume and payload capacity are a major element of NASA’s program. A fleet of them will carry men, masses of equipment, and fuel to lunar orbit where NASA will build a space station. It is sort of a halfway house in getting to the Moon itself.
A specialized version of StarShip will ferry material from the lunar orbiting space station down to the surface of the Moon. It will land on the Moon in an upright orientation (just like each Falcon-9 does so routinely here on Earth), discharge cargo, and then return to the orbiting lunar station to pick up more fuel and material from Earth. Important point: The Moon’s gravity is only one-sixth of Earth’s so all these round trips are commensurately easier.
StarShip's first launch this month will be a linchpin accomplishment. NASA is way out on a limb being so dependent on a spacecraft that has not yet orbited the Earth. Fingers crossed.
The enormous, permanent launch tower uses its large, black arms to lift the upper stage StarShip and mate it with the waiting booster. However, it will also be used to “catch” StarShips after they return to Earth for more supplies. The launch tower’s black arms just grab it when it hovers at the right place and altitude. The current Falcon-9s routinely come to a hover just inches from the concrete landing area, right in the middle of a bulls-eye, just as their extended landing legs meet the ground. That is what makes the Falcon-9 reusable. So what’s so hard about hovering in an exact place a hundred feet in the air between extended arms?
Exciting times. LoveYa, Dad, Paw, Bob
