On November 20, the prototype of SpaceX’s next-generation Starship launch system experienced damages. It happened during a tanking test. Nevertheless, the company said this could not hurt the development process, and they will continue working in the usual way.
The test took place in Texas, Boca Chica, in the vicinity near Brownsville. There exists a video of the accident. During the pressurization test at around 4:30 p.m. ET, a white plume erupted from the top of the Starship Mark 1 vehicle. The explosion took the bulkhead off from the machine and fell back to the ground after the seconds.
The people working on this vehicle hoped that the HOUSTON could make a suborbital flight soon. It was undergoing many tests. Fortunately, when the accident happened, the car was not in the air. No one knew immediately what the extent of the damage was beyond the ejected bulkhead.
After the two and a half hours from the event, SpaceX announced that the goal of the tests was to set the pressurized systems to the max. So at some point, they were conscious that this might happen. However, it is good that there were no injuries and no serious setbacks.
On 28 September, the presentation of the initial prototype took place in Boca Chica. It is going to be the second stage of a heavy-lift reusable launch vehicle. Later this year, SpaceX wanted to start the suborbital flight tests to the altitude of 20 kilometers. Because of the incident, this cannot happen anymore in time. There will be procrastination.
Starship Mark 1 Will Not Fly in its Scheduled Time
At the event founder and chief executive of SpaceX, Elon Musk said. The spaceship will take off about 20 kilometers, which is 65,000 feet, and then land back after one or two months. During the interview, he had a backdrop of the fully assembled Starship Mark 1.
The scheduled time of the Mark 1 trip was changed even before the accident, which happened during the test. The company announced that it already made the decision, and the spaceship will not fly because the team changed its focus on the Mk3 builds, which are designed for orbit.
Mark 3 is a second prototype that the team will work on, as Musk said at the September 29 event in Boca Chica. The work will be done in three months, as Elon Musk announced publicly. For the orbital flight, they will use the Mark 3 vehicle.
After the test accident team decide to move their whole focus on a second prototype, the accident served them as manufacturing pathfinder. The Mark 1 version of starship has a different kind of flight different.
A prototype called Mark 2 is in progress also. For that separate spaceship, another SpaceX team is working in Florida. So, Elon Musk’s team has two other options besides Mark 1. Now the concentration is on the other two models. Group said that they acknowledged the mistakes and will work better on the other two vehicles. The project’s progress is not stuck, and it is good news for the technological world.
