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Good news~ The third launch of the starship went smoothly into space! Bad news~ After re-entering the atmosphere, it lost contact! The third test flight of the Space X starship, which has attracted much attention, was a "great success" on the mainland's self-media! Musk didn't dare to blow it like this, is it okay for the self-media to blow it like this?
The only thing that can defeat the United States is the United States! What is more economically developed than the United States is the long-distance dog breeding industry in the United States. There were various problems with the third launch of the Mingxing ship, and in the end it was completely lost, but some self-media on the mainland ignored the facts and boasted that the third launch of the starship was "a great success, and human space technology has made great progress!" Is there a bottom line for the domestic self-media, why do they dare to blow it so much?
The "Starship" of repeated defeats
In general, Musk is a great person, but also a person who dares to think and do, and it is this ultimate pursuit that led to the creation of Space X, just like Steve Jobs back then, to forcibly promote the transformation of the mobile phone industry and lead the trend of smart phones.
Many of the things Musk is doing now also have this significance, especially his "Starship" program, which, if successful, will inevitably have a huge role in promoting the aerospace industry of mankind. But judging from the current development, it is still difficult to say that it is successful.
Before 2024, Starship had already conducted two launch tests, but without exception they ended in failure. The first launch, the rocket exploded about 3.5 minutes after liftoff.
The second launch, 8 minutes after the rocket lifts off, there was another high-altitude explosion. The two successive failures were not due to the fact that the starship had any new technology that violated the principles of physics, but purely because there were engineering problems.
The successive failures did not destroy the confidence of the Starship team, but became more and more courageous, and the third test launch was arranged in full swing.
At 9:25 p.m. Beijing time on March 14, 2024, Starship conducted its third test launch. At first everything went well, and the starship lifted off smoothly according to plan.
Four minutes after ignition, the first and second stage rockets completed their separation, the rockets successfully entered the predetermined orbit, and everything seemed to be developing in a good direction.
For this launch, Space X boss Elon Musk is also full of confidence, on his own social platform X, Musk conducted a real-time live broadcast, attracting more than 4 million people to watch the live broadcast room.
During the live broadcast, Musk showed everyone the super-hot plasma field of the surface burning when the starship passed through the atmosphere, which was the first time that humans could see the plasma "burning" picture so clearly.
Musk's live broadcast ended halfway, and in the end only one sentence remained: "Starship will make life multi-planetary"! The implication is that Starship will carry human beings to open the era of interstellar immigration.
Musk's words may come true in the long run, but in the current situation, it is still just a good wish. Because in the webcast that followed, Space X commentators said that the Starship spacecraft lost contact with the ground control center during the re-entry process of the atmosphere.
At 22:32 Beijing time, the Starship second stage rocket lost signal, and the third test flight mission had to end early. Although the final result was not satisfactory, netizens who watched the live broadcast still had a positive attitude towards it, believing that "this performance has been better than the previous two times".
Wang Yubo, head of the Wenchang Aerospace Science Popularization Association, also agreed, believing that the third launch of the starship was already a "leapfrog progress" compared with the previous two launches. Wang Yubo explained that as long as the starship did not explode in the sky, he thought the mission was complete.
Highlights and regrets of this experiment
Before this test launch, Musk had publicly stated that the main goal of this mission was to bring the Starship to orbital speed. The so-called orbital velocity is to allow the starship to reach enough speed to enter the orbit around the earth stably.
In addition to this, Starship plans to ignite a Raptor engine in space, open and close payload hatches, and simultaneously implement a propellant transfer between the two Starship refueling stations in orbit.
Most of this series of experimental goals, the third Starship experiment, was completed. The first is to reach orbital velocity, which was perfectly achieved this time, successfully entering the predetermined orbit after a few minutes of flight, and completing the accurate orbit entry experiment.
During the space flight, Starship also experimented with the opening and closing of the payload door. Only when the payload gate can be opened and closed normally can the payload be accurately released into space and achieve the ultimate purpose of rocket launch.
In addition, Starship also completed the space transfer of propellant in this experiment. This is the equivalent of in-flight refueling technology for aircraft. Once the space cryogenic propellant transfer technology is realized, the operation time of the spacecraft in space will be greatly improved, which is equivalent to effectively extending the in-orbit life of the spacecraft.
This experiment has achieved a number of goals, which is also the reason why some self-media in the mainland are excited, touting Starship as "a great success and another great progress in the history of human aerospace"!
Although the Starship test was successful, it was still far from a "great success", because many experimental goals were still not achieved.
The first is that the Raptor engine ignited again in space, which was not mentioned and shown in the official live broadcast of Space X, and there is no clear statement as to whether there was no ignition or unsuccessful ignition.
Secondly, the atmospheric re-entry of the starship and the landing in the Indian Ocean failed to materialize. After completing the test launch mission, according to the original plan, the starship will re-enter the atmosphere and accept a controlled landing in the target waters of the Indian Ocean.
In the subsequent experiment, although the starship successfully re-entered the atmosphere, it lost contact with the ground control center soon after the re-entry, which means that the starship "lost contact" and the re-entry and landing tests failed completely.
Although Musk did not require the starship to land safely at the beginning, the re-entry loss does not know where to fly, and the controlled re-entry landing in the designated area are two completely different results.
Because of the failure of the re-entry and landing tests, the experiment that predicted the controlled change of the landing orbit of the starship re-entry into the atmosphere was also not completed. According to the original design, the starship will receive instructions from the ground control center after re-entering the atmosphere, change its flight trajectory and land over the Indian Ocean.
However, after re-entry, the starship quickly lost contact, and the experiment ultimately failed completely. Therefore, it can be said that Starship failed in this test launch, but it can also be said that it was successful.
But in any case, there is a clear gap between this test launch and the "great success", even Musk, who has always had a big mouth, is not embarrassed to blow it like this, but some domestic self-media have blown it for each other, and I don't know how much money can be made by blowing such a strong wave.
It is not difficult to admit that others are excellent, but the premise is to seek truth from facts, not to make something out of nothing, to blow up unsuccessful experiments as "great success", and to force everyone to admit that they are excellent, which is indeed a bit difficult for strong people.
What starships are all about
Although the Raptor engine failed to ignite in space in this experiment, and the second-stage rocket was eventually missing, the Starship's test goal was basically achieved. The continuous progress of starships is of extraordinary significance to the United States and mankind as a whole.
With a total length of more than 120 meters and a carrying capacity of 100 tons, the starship is designed to carry 100 people to the moon, Mars or other more distant planets, and it is even easier to send it to near-Earth space.
The Starship has a take-off weight of 5,000 tons and a thrust of more than 7,400 tons, and according to the original design, the two stages of the rocket can be reused, of course, it is not yet at such a level.
Although it does not meet the design standards, Starship is still the world's top rocket, once successful, it will be of great significance to human exploration of space, such a huge contribution, and will surely make Musk surpass Jobs and become a figure worthy of special mention in the history of technology.
For the United States, Starship has another layer of significance, and that is the Artemis program related to the American moon landing. This plan is another manned mission to the moon by the United States, but it has always been a constant situation until now.
NASA, together with the European Space Agency, has been unsuccessful in developing a rocket for the Artemis program, so much so that the test launch mission has had to be postponed again and again.
According to the latest news, NASA once again announced the postponement of the launch test mission originally scheduled for the first half of 2024 to no earlier than September 2025, which is a year and a half, and the United States may have a new president by then.
Given NASA's constant delays in returning to the moon due to rocket reasons, Starship may be the best choice for the United States and Europe, and NASA is really involved in the Starship program.
Even if Starship does not eventually use a manned landing on the moon, it will still occupy an important place in the Artemis program, because Starship will then operate in Earth orbit to provide fuel for the US manned lunar spacecraft, which is also the purpose of the spacecraft cryogenic fuel transfer after the third test launch of Starship.
It can be said that Starship has a great impact on the US manned lunar landing program, and if it is not successful, perhaps this time the manned lunar landing competition, the mainland will come out on top, after all, we have set a clear goal to achieve a manned lunar landing by 2030.
The continent's space exploration goals are not released at random, and once they are publicly released, it means that they will be achieved at that time, which has been well proven in the continent's previous space programs. This means that if the United States fails to solve the rocket problem for a long time, it will fall behind the mainland.
Starship is of great significance to the United States, and it also has a lot of reference significance for the global aerospace field, and the reusable rocket body has greatly reduced the cost of a single launch.
The earth is the cradle of mankind, and human beings will one day leave the cradle, and a reusable rocket like Starship may be one of the choices for human beings to leave the cradle.