For the second consecutive time, SpaceX was obliged to cancel An attempt to launch its super-heavy-starship giant rocket during the 10th program test for the program, a significant mission aimed at demonstrating fixes and upgrades as a result of Three catastrophic failures Earlier this year.
An attempt to launch Sunday on the vast Starbase installation of SpaceX, on the Côte du Gulf du Texas, was canceled due to an oxygen leak in a system on the ground. Monday cleaning occurred less than a minute from the end due to an electrically loaded anvil cloud near the launch pad that did not leave the area in time.
The company says it will try a third time on Tuesday evening. The one hour launch window begins at 7:30 p.m. HE.
Éric Gay / AP
Whenever he takes off, a successful flight would open the way to a faster launch rate while SpaceX is preparing to test the autonomous transfers of ship’s shipping next year, a necessary condition for a Sluing of NASA from 2027 and for possible flights to Mars.
But the company will have to launch 10 to 20 super heavy oils to supply a Starship landing entered towards the moon under construction for the Artemis program in NASA. Many observers doubt that the system is perfected in time for an landing in 2027 and perhaps not before the Chinese launched their own lunar mission at the end of the decade.
Speaking before the launch attempt on Monday, the founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk, acknowledged that “there are thousands of technical challenges to take up, both for the vessel and for booster”. He put a particular emphasis on the improvement of orbital supplies.
“No one has ever demonstrated a (cryogenic) transfer of orbit propeller,” he said. “It will be a transfer of propellants on a very large scale. But with total reusction and a transfer of propellants, these are the key technologies necessary for the construction of a city on Mars. And I am convinced that the SpaceX team will reach these objectives.”
In the short term, SpaceX’s objective is to have the Super Heavy-Starship again stole after several consecutive failures.
Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images 
The objectives of the flight are to test the first super heavy floor in various stressful flight conditions, deliberately stopping the engines during the descent until the Gulf is to ensure that it can manage real breakdowns during a real mission.
Given the nature of the tests, SpaceX has excluded a spectacular return on the launch ramp for a flight capture by giant mechanical arms on the support gantry.
As for the starship, the flight plan plans to send the upper floor to the other end of the world on a suborbital trajectory to a controlled back to school and a bittering in the Indian Ocean.
Based on the way, various tests are planned, including the deployment of eight satellites simulators Starlink and the restart in the space of a raptor engine supplied with methane. Modified thermal shield tiles are in place to determine their ability to resist extreme back -to -school temperatures.
Multiple improvements are also in place to minimize the risks of propellant leaks, fires and engine stops such as those which led to the loss of the last three launched vessels, none of which could finish its mission.
The Secretary of Transports Sean Duffy, acting administrator of NASA, is optimistic that SpaceX will resolve the bugs on time for the mission of the establishment provided by the agency.
“If you look at the company as a whole and its past performance, it is often late, then all of a sudden, it makes considerable progress,” he said in an interview with CBS News. “I would have trouble saying that they will not be able to achieve objectives and deadlines.”
“Their leaders said we were convinced that we will be ready for the mission. So I take them to the word,” he said.
CBS News has interviewed several current and former NASA directors and engineers and subcontractors in recent weeks, who have unanimously agreed that an establishment in 2027 could not be carried out safely with current architecture. And none of them said they believe that NASA could get there before the Chinese without a radical change of CAP.
“I think that the people you have spoken are right. We are in no way going to send a spaceship with crew on the moon by 2030,” said a principal engineer who worked on the Artemis program. “This does not mean that they will never get there. This does not mean that architecture could not work. But it is simply a technical jump too important to make in the short time we have.”
But as Duffy pointed out, SpaceX recorded a remarkable record with his family of partially reusable Falcon rockets, by launching them at an unequaled pace which allows the company to implement and quickly test upgrades and fixes.
Friday, SpaceX launched 518 Falcon 9 and 11 Falcon Heavy Triple Heart rockets with only two outlets in flight. The company has managed to recover first floor boosters 490 times.
Given his record, many fans grant SpaceX the benefit of doubt with regard to the Super Heavy-Starship. But the giant rocket eclipses Falcon 9, and the requirements for a successful establishment are far beyond those encountered in a typical satellite launcher.
“My concerns concern the complexity of the mission architecture and the number of flights necessary to send a single landing on the moon,” said Douglas Cooke, a retired veteran for NASA for 38 years who now works as a consultant for Boeing and other aerospace companies.
“Reaching high figures,” he added, “reduced the chances of success”.
SpaceX did not respond to a comment request.
