SpaceX conducts its fifth Starship spacecraft test flight at Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas on Oct. 13, hoping to someday go to Mars.
SpaceX caught the Starship spacecraft’s booster with mechanical grid fins, allowing them to be reused. This lowers the cost of future launches for spacecrafts.
Mr. Matthew Eggers, the Tech Ed teacher at RCMS was amazed by the event.
“It was awesome, catching one out of the air is crazy,” Mr. Eggers said.
There are two parts to the Starship spacecraft, the Starship itself and the Super Heavy booster. The entire spacecraft is fully reusable and it’s made out of stainless steel. In total the entire spacecraft is 121 meters (397ft) tall and 9 meters (30ft) wide, making it the tallest rocket in history.
The Starship is the 50 meter spacecraft sitting on top of the Super Heavy booster. The Super Heavy booster is 71 meters tall.
Dharshan Shanmuganathan, a seventh-grader on the Dream Team, said that the spacecraft achieved a remarkable feat in size.
“One of the biggest rockets in the world. Completely game-changing.” Dharshan said.
The test flights began in 2019 with what SpaceX calls Skyhopper flights, which only go to lower altitudes. SpaceX began their full scale tests in 2020, with good results. In 2021, they went 10km. Then, in 2023, they did more orbital tests, and now they caught the fully reusable boosters.
SpaceX wants to achieve a crewed mission to Mars.
Dharshan said that if the Starship could travel to Mars it would be amazing.
“It is pretty awesome, said Dharshan, “and taking people to another planet is something that we have been dreaming about for centuries.”
However, Mr. Eggers said that even if we could travel to Mars with the Starship it would take a very long time.
“I think we are still 20 to 30 years off from that.” Mr. Eggers said.
There are still issues that could occur, though. The Starship uses an orbiting fuelling system in the atmosphere to refuel the Starship.
Cole Lin, an eighth-grader in the Voyagers Team, said that refueling could be a very big problem for the Starship.
“The fueling process might be a problem for the Starship,” Cole said.
Dharshan also said that the fuel would be a large problem for Starship.
“The refueling process will be kind of complicated,” he said.
Mr. Eggers believes that the main problem for Starship will be proving that it is safe for human use.
“Yeah, I still think there are many obstacles, including proving it safe for humans.”
But, despite these problems, SpaceX wants to increase the flight rate of Starship and Cole thinks that’s amazing.
Cole said, “I think it’s pretty cool and amazing that people might live on another planet due to this rocket.”
