The first launch of Elon Musk’s mega rocket: the date when Starship will fly into space has been announced (video)

The first test flight of SpaceX’s Starship superheavy space rocket into space could happen by the end of next week. Unless of course everything goes according to plan, writes Space.

in 24News Breaker. Technology emerged telegraph channel. Subscribe so you don’t miss the latest and exciting news from the world of science!

On Monday, April 10, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk announced less than two weeks until the launch of the newest launch vehicle and the spacecraft on it. According to Musk, the launch of the mega-rocket, which has never been in space, should take place by the end of the third week of April this year.

Musk did not reveal a specific date, but according to Space, it is quite possible that one of the most important days in SpaceX history will be April 20, 2023. The fact is that this day can be set to 4/20, and this numerical designation is used by cannabis lovers (and possibly Musk belongs to them) to indicate the time of use of this substance. Musk often jokes about it on Twitter, and last week he explicitly hinted at the date on his account.

In fact, SpaceX has been preparing for the first launch of the Starship rocket, which has been delayed for several months. But over the past few weeks, the preparatory work at the company’s base in Texas has accelerated significantly.

For example, just last week, SpaceX experts completely assembled the two stages of the superheavy Starship rocket and placed it on the launch pad to launch it into space. So this confirms that Elon Musk’s company is in the final preparations and maybe the launch will actually take place by the end of next week, maybe even April 20th.

What is a starship?

The Starship reusable super heavy launch vehicle consists of two parts:

• The first stage is the launch vehicle itself, called the Super Heavy. Its height is 70 meters and it is equipped with 33 Raptor engines.
• The second stage is a spacecraft called Starship, 50 meters high and powered by 6 Raptor engines.
• All together, this huge system is called the Starship space rocket with a total height of 120 meters. Therefore, this rocket is the largest ever built in history. Thinking that a prototype rocket will fly into space until now, Musk has already stated that the next version could be 10 meters higher.
• After its first launch into space, the Starship rocket will become not only the world’s largest operational rocket, but also the most powerful. The engines of its first stage can generate 2 times more thrust at launch than NASA’s Space Launch System, currently the world’s most powerful rocket. It demonstrated its capabilities last fall during the launch of the Orion spacecraft, which successfully orbited the Moon in autonomous mode and returned home.

It’s important to understand that SpaceX’s first historic mega-rocket launch into space will take place with the help of its two-stage prototypes. The first stage, the launch vehicle, is called Booster 7, and the second stage, the spacecraft, is called Ship 24. It was only assembled for the first test flight.

The Starship rocket is designed to deliver humans and cargo to the Moon, Mars and even other planets and moons of the solar system. Elon Musk, we remember his brainchild and this rocket can be used many times, he believes it will lead to a real revolution in space flight.

Focus I already wrote that SpaceX tested the performance of the Starship rocket in February of this year.

Moreover Focus He wrote that Starship will send a unique lunar rover there during its first flight to the moon.

We remind you that a historic space mission will take place next fall. For the first time since 1972, four astronauts will fly around the moon in a spacecraft. This will happen as part of the Artemis 2 mission and as I wrote earlier FocusNASA has named the first humans to travel this far in space in the 21st century.