The Technology section is powered by Favbet Tech

Last year was the best year in SpaceX’s history, CEO Elon Musk told employees during a general meeting in South Texas. There have been 96 flights of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, as well as the first two test flights of the massive new Starship rocket.

In 2024, SpaceX plans to carry out more than 140 launches of rockets of the Falcon family. Up to 10 Starship test flights could take place this year, according to a NASA representative who manages the agency’s contract with SpaceX to develop a Starship to land a man on the moon, ArsTechnica reports.

According to Musk, SpaceX is working to extend the life of the Falcon 9’s reusable first stage boosters. Originally, SpaceX said each Falcon 9 launch vehicle could fly up to 10 times without major repairs. Some Falcon 9s have already made almost twice as many flights.

We made the 19th return flight. We’re getting the Falcon 9 ready for 40 flights now, and we’re aiming for maybe 150 flights this year.

– said Musk.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle completed its record 19th flight and retired

Increasing the frequency of launches will require SpaceX to increase production capacity to produce more Falcon 9 second stages, which are used only once. And SpaceX will need to better deploy its Falcon 9 launch pads between missions.

We aim to reduce the site deployment time to 24 hours, hopefully by the end of this year.

What happened on the last flight of the Starship?

Starship’s second full-scale test flight on Nov. 18 surpassed SpaceX’s pre-launch goals. Musk said the primary goal was for the rocket to complete the launch phase, which occurred just under three minutes into the flight when the Starship’s upper stage separated from the booster.

Video of the day: SpaceX Starship’s second test flight – launch highlights in 4K

Up until this point, all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy launch vehicle had been operating flawlessly, after which the Starship’s booster fired six Raptor engines to continue the ascent into space. The superheavy launch vehicle exploded after it began burning in reverse thrust to direct itself into a controlled descent. That was a secondary goal, but SpaceX engineers will have to fix the problem before it can recover and reuse the Super Heavy launch vehicle.

The Starship – the rocket’s upper stage – continued flying until about eight minutes into the flight, when it disintegrated in space over the Gulf of Mexico. This came less than 30 seconds before the Starship’s engines were due to shut down, as the craft gained enough speed to launch into its planned trajectory across most of the globe. If everything went perfectly, the craft would have re-entered the atmosphere and crashed near the Hawaiian Islands.

Musk said the Starship disintegrated while releasing liquid oxygen at the end of the burn. Raptor engines use liquid oxygen and methane as fuel.

Liquid oxygen resulted in a fire and explosion. Ironically, if it had a payload, it would have reached orbit.

SpaceX plans to receive a commercial launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration in February. SpaceX launched its first two Starship test flights within days of receiving the FAA license.

New Starship Plans

SpaceX plans to debut the Starship’s payload bay doors on its next flight. The payload bay doors will open to launch Starlink broadband satellites, which Musk likens the design to a Pez candy dispensing system.

SpaceX is also preparing for a fuel injection test as part of a $53 million NASA contract the company won in 2020. This Tipping Point demonstration will involve pumping supercooled fuel from a main tank on top of a Starship into one of its main tanks while in space.

This is a precursor to future, more complex demonstrations involving two giant Starships docked together in Earth orbit. Then SpaceX will be ready to send a spacecraft to the moon for a test landing without astronauts on board. After the successful completion of the test, NASA will prepare the Starship for landing the crew of the Artemis III mission, which will mark the return of astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972. This is now not expected until September 2025, as NASA recently announced.

NASA has postponed the first Artemis mission with a crew – to September 2025

Starship’s next test flight will also be the first attempt to restart the spacecraft’s Raptor engines in space. Last year, Starship’s first two flights were aimed at trajectories that would return the ships to Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean after completing an almost complete orbit around the planet. SpaceX chose this flight profile to ensure that the Starship would return to Earth rather than get stuck in low Earth orbit.

In flight 3 we want to get to orbit and burn the engine in space from the main tank and prove that we can safely deorbit. We want to transfer fuel from the main tank to the main tank. This is important for NASA’s Artemis program. And we also want to demonstrate the payload door for the … Pez for Starlink delivery.

Musk hopes to launch Starlink on Starship by the end of this year. All Starlink satellites were launched by Falcon 9 rockets. SpaceX is building a second launch pad for Starship at Starbase in South Texas.

SpaceX’s Artemis missions will likely have to launch Starships almost as often as they launch Falcon 9 rockets — several times a week to collect methane and liquid oxygen for storage in Earth orbit. The manned Starship will then enter low-Earth orbit, connect with the storage facility, and, once fully refueled, depart for the Moon.

NASA astronaut crews will depart from Earth on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, then dock with the Starship lander in lunar orbit. Starship will ferry two of the four Artemis crew members from Orion to the lunar surface before returning to Orion for the return trip home.

NASA’s plans for Starship

NASA is closely monitoring SpaceX’s progress on Starship. The agency asked SpaceX to provide lunar landers for the Artemis III and Artemis IV missions, the first two lunar landing missions under the Artemis program. Before launching Artemis III, SpaceX must perform an unmanned lunar landing using Starship. Blue Origin will develop the lander for Artemis V, and the two companies are expected to compete for contracts for subsequent lunar landing missions.

The Starship will come in various configurations, such as a lunar lander, a tanker, a fuel depot and a satellite vehicle. But they will all share the same basic design with Raptor engines and stainless steel structures. Under the terms of NASA’s Starship lander contract, SpaceX must use two superheavy boosters, four Starship fuel tanks, one Starship storage and one Starship lander for each Artemis launch campaign. SpaceX will also build a spare Super Heavy booster and two spare Starship fuel containers to support each Artemis mission.

SpaceX will use the Super Heavy’s reusable boosters and Starship’s fuel tanks in turn for a series of launches to replenish Starship’s in-orbit fuel storage. The company will demonstrate all this with an unmanned Starship test flight before the Artemis III launch. For this, SpaceX will need at least two operational Starship launch sites.

Musk said SpaceX is developing upgraded Starships, which he called version 2 and 3, with “the best performance and endurance.” Starship version 3, in particular, will increase the height of the world’s largest rocket from 121 to 140 m or more. According to Musk, the upgrade could also increase the Starship’s payload capacity from about 100 tons to more than 200 tons per flight.

The Technology section is powered by Favbet Tech

Favbet Tech is an IT company with 100% Ukrainian DNA, which creates perfect services for iGaming and Betting using advanced technologies and provides access to them. Favbet Tech develops innovative software through a complex multi-component platform capable of withstanding huge loads and creating a unique experience for players. The IT company is part of the FAVBET group of companies.