Chunks of ejected concrete, bent metal and craters dug into the ground… The force of the first liftoff of SpaceX’s new rocket, Starship, the largest and most powerful in the world, has severely damaged its launch pad in Texas.
The damage caused is likely to take several months to repair. They could thus delay the next test flights, and therefore the development of this rocket that NASA counts on quickly to send its astronauts back to the Moon.
“Broke the concrete”
Before Thursday’s test flight, SpaceX boss Elon Musk’s only wish was “not to destroy the launch pad.” His fear: that the rocket would explode before it left the ground, which it finally did after four minutes of flight, over the sea.
But the company seems to have underestimated the damage that a simple takeoff of this 120-meter-tall mastodon could cause.
“The engines, when turned on, may have shattered the concrete, rather than just eroding it,” Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday.
Several months of repair
The gigantic launch tower withstood the impact. The huge base on which the vehicle rests (launch table) is also still there, even though it has been damaged. But under it a deep crater has been excavated, according to images published by specialists on social networks.
Around him reigns a landscape of desolation. During liftoff, a shower of debris was catapulted into the nearby sea, SpaceX video shows. A cloud of dust reached a small town several kilometers away, according to the local press.
“The radius of debris and nuisance was probably larger than anyone had anticipated,” said Olivier de Weck, a professor in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
“The main damage from the launch pad is below, where the flames (from the engines) attack the ground,” explained Olivier de Weck, several of whose alumni work for SpaceX. “The crater that has been created will have to be filled in and repaired, and that will definitely take several months.”
Protection not “ready on time”
The Starship launch pad did not appear to be equipped with two facilities normally used for heavy launchers. First, a “deluge”: phenomenal amounts of water poured at the precise moment the engines started, to attenuate the acoustic waves, limiting vibrations.
Then, a “jet deflector” (or smoke ducts): a tunnel system that allows the gases emitted to be redirected, protecting both the concrete and the rocket. But building them is extremely expensive, especially since they must be adapted to the size of the rocket, disproportionate in the case of Starship.
After the test, Elon Musk explained that the company had started to build “a water-cooled steel plate” to be placed under the base of the rocket, which ultimately was not “ready on time.”
The company “mistakenly” thought the launch pad would withstand the test, he admitted, adding that a new launch would probably be possible “in a month or two.”
“More a success than a failure”
Such a steel plate “would make sense, I think it will work,” said Philip Metzger, a former NASA employee who worked on launch pad physics. Spraying it with water would prevent the plate from “melting,” he explained.
This would not solve the problem of acoustic waves, but “you can build a rocket strong enough to resist it,” estimated this scientist from the University of Central Florida. Designing a launch pad is as complex as developing a rocket, he noted.
NASA’s new megarocket, SLS, which launched for the first time in November from Florida, had also caused damage, notably knocking out elevators on its launch tower.
Before being able to fly again, in addition to reinforcing its launch pad, SpaceX will need to determine the cause of the problems encountered in flight. Several engines failed and the two stages of the rocket did not separate as expected, forcing SpaceX to activate the self-destruct command.
Ultimately, it will be necessary to convince the aviation regulator, the FAA, to allow Starship to take off again, Olivier de Weck said. The agency confirmed that Thursday’s test caused no injuries and said it was overseeing the investigation into the explosion. He assured that a new test flight would be conditional on public safety.
Counterintuitively, this first test is still “more of a hit than a flop,” according to Olivier de Weck. “SpaceX can develop these amazing capabilities because they’re willing to take risks and break things, but they learn from it.”
Source: BFM TV
