SpaceX delays launch of Starship with Super Heavy rocket

The probable freezing of a valve postponed until next Wednesday (19) the launch of the first integrated flight test of the Starship spacecraft with the new SpaceX rocket, called Super Heavy. The forecast was that the takeoff would be made around 10:20 am (Brasília time). The company will soon confirm the reason for the postponement, as well as the time of the new launch attempt, from Starbase, in Texas (USA). Considered as a “revolution for future space missions”, planned with the objective of taking crews and cargo to the Moon and, later, Mars, the mission postponed for 48 hours would be the first integrated flight test between the spacecraft, of 50 meters tall, and the new rocket, 70 meters. The launch tower measures 146 meters, and is new in that it is also a “capture tower”, since it has mechanical arms that will help (in future missions) the “vertical landing” of the reusable Super Heavy rocket on its return to base after undocking from the spacecraft. Even with the postponement, SpaceX, billionaire Elon Musk’s company, kept the countdown until the final seconds for launch, in order to allow the so-called “wet test”, for analyzes on the behavior of the fuel, composed of methane and oxygen. liquids.

Agência Brasil