Space Exploration Technologies Corporation’s (SpaceX) chief executive officer Mr. Elon Mus has shared new footage of the company’s Starship next-generation launch vehicle platform ahead of a presentation that he intends to deliver from Boca Chica, Texas later today local time. Starship is SpaceX’s under development rocket that sits at the heart of its plans of interplanetary missions, alongside aiming to provide the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with the crucial capability of landing humans on the Moon later this decade through the Artemis program. Starship is a new architecture that uses different fuel and engines over SpaceX’s current Falcon 9 rockets, and it also aims to be the first in the world of landing both its lower and upper stages post-flight.
SpaceX Stacks Second Stage Starship Rocket Using Mechanical Arms For The First Time As Part Of New Launch Architecture
When compared to his company’s in-service Falcon 9 rockets which discard their second or upper stage after launch and only land the first stage, Starship not only plans to recover both the stages but also develop an unprecedented level of launch cadence through rapid reusability. SpaceX plans to ‘catch’ the first stage booster as it lands, place it on the pad and then remove the upper stage through mechanical chopsticks. This will be through a 469 feet tall launch and arrest tower, details of which surfaced through a SpaceX filing with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) last year. Now, after planning to initially finish construction last year. SpaceX has finally not only built the landing tower, but it has also successfully stacked the upper stage Starship on the lower stage booster through it shows footage shared by Musk earlier today. The roughly 90-second clip seems to be from a monitor, and while it is not very crisp, it nevertheless shows mechanical arms on the launch tower effectively ‘suspending’ the 164 feet tall upper stage in mid-air before placing it on top of the 230 feet tall booster.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 10, 2022 Additionally, Musk also shared several images of both the upper stage suspended mid-air and its bottom as it hovered above the first stage. The images and the video come as Musk gears up for a rare presentation on the Starship build progress. The executive and his company are waiting on the FAA to complete an environmental review of the Texas launch site in order to apply for a launch license. This would enable SpaceX to conduct a highly awaited orbital launch attempt in order to test and validate its platform. The presentation is set to take place at 8:00 PM Texas time later today according to an update provided by the SpaceX executive earlier, and it should mark the first time in years that he has held an event for the rocket that aims to change not only SpaceX’s future but also further disrupt the astronautic industry. In addition to a myriad of plans that involve interplanetary missions and cleaning space junk, Starship is also critical to NASA’s efforts of establishing a human presence on the Moon and SpaceX’s subsidiary Starlin’s aim of rapidly building a 42,000 small satellite internet constellation. The rocket’s size is integral for both as it will allow to deliver large amounts of equipment to the lunar surface and enable Starlink to launch more satellites at a higher altitude than is currently possible. For more details about the SpaceX Starship, head on to:
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Updated at 9:07 PM ET with live stream link.
