The stock market is like a game of chess. When opening an account, it's important to plan ahead and seize investment opportunities at any time!
According to CCTV News on the 13th, on October 12th local time, the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States announced the approval of SpaceX's new generation heavy lift carrier rocket "Starship" for its fifth test flight, with a launch window of 7am Central Time on the 13th.
Meanwhile, holding the newly printed regulatory license, SpaceX announced on Saturday that the fifth test flight of the Starship will be held as planned on October 13th. The launch window will open at 7am local time and last for 30 minutes, starting at 8pm Beijing time on Sunday evening.
Before this week, no one realized that the fifth test flight of the Starship would take place so quickly. Because just last month, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) responsible for approval stated that it did not expect to approve the launch before the end of November. However, SpaceX suddenly released a statement on Monday stating that "it is possible to launch on Sunday", which is also seen as the company foreseeing being able to "quickly obtain certification".
FAA
On the same day, the FAA officially issued the permit for the fifth test flight of the Starship and also approved the mission plan for the sixth test flight of the Starship. The FAA confirms that SpaceX's Starship's fifth test flight meets all safety, environmental, and licensing requirements for suborbital testing flights.
In fact, during the fourth test flight on June 6th, the "Starship" basically completed all the preset tests: the "Overweight" rocket successfully achieved controllable soft splash landing, and although the flaps of the Starship spacecraft suffered damage to the heat absorbing tiles during its return to Earth, it was still considered a successful splash landing in the Indian Ocean. Thanks to the satellite Internet live broadcast throughout the earth orbit, mankind witnessed for the first time that the spaceship was surrounded by plasma when it returned to the earth.
After several months of preparation, SpaceX has now upgraded the spacecraft's thermal shield across generations and added additional layers, hoping to provide better protection for the spacecraft.
For the fifth test flight, the biggest highlight will be SpaceX's challenge to capture and return the "overweight" rocket from the launch pad: unlike the "Falcon 9" and "Falcon Heavy" rockets, SpaceX will use a structure called a "chopstick" on a huge launch pad to hold the super large rocket returning to Earth in mid air.
In June of this year, SpaceX released a simulation animation demonstrating this process. Musk explained that directly returning the rocket to the launch pad would allow SpaceX to more efficiently refurbish and re launch the vehicle.
According to the launch schedule, this highly entertaining moment will occur at the 6th minute and 56th second after the rocket launch. SpaceX is not dead on words. If conditions do not allow it, "overweight" rockets will still undergo controlled splashes.
On September 8th this year, Musk posted on social media announcing the Mars program: the first starship to go to Mars will be launched in 2 years to test the reliability of a complete landing on Mars. If the landing goes smoothly, the first manned Mars mission will take place in 4 years.
After the first manned landing on Mars, the flight rate of the starship will increase exponentially, with the goal of building a self-sufficient city on Mars within about 20 years.
If implemented, this would be the beginning of an interstellar civilization.
Musk believes that SpaceX has successfully developed a fully reusable rocket and made reuse economically feasible, laying a solid foundation for the Mars immigration program.
What is the biggest challenge for Mars immigration?
Musk said that the most crucial issue in sending humans to Mars is to reduce the cost per ton of payload.
Now, delivering one ton of payload to the surface of Mars would cost approximately $1 billion! In order to build a self-sufficient city on Mars, the cost needs to be reduced to $100000/ton, which means the technology needs to be improved by 10000 times!
This may sound like a fantasy, but Musk said it's not impossible.
Mars Immigration Program Schedule:
Two years later: The first batch of Starship unmanned spacecraft will land on Mars to test the feasibility of a safe landing.
Four years later: If the unmanned spacecraft lands successfully, the first batch of manned spacecraft will depart for Mars, which is a critical milestone because from then on, the launch rate of interstellar spacecraft will increase exponentially.
Within 20 years: Musk's goal is to build a self-sufficient city on Mars.
Why immigrate to Mars? Musk believes that becoming a multi planet species will greatly increase the survival probability of human consciousness, as we no longer put all consciousness eggs in the same basket.
The Starship rocket has a total length of about 120 meters and a diameter of about 9 meters. It consists of two parts. The first stage is a "super heavy" booster that is about 70 meters long, and the second stage is the Starship spacecraft. Both stages can be reused. The design goal of this rocket is to send people and cargo to Earth orbit, the moon, and even Mars.
The Starship has currently conducted four orbital test flights. During the first test flight in April 2023, the rocket exploded before the separation of the first and second stages. During the second test flight in November 2023, the first and second stages of the rocket successfully separated, but the booster and spacecraft subsequently exploded. During the third test flight in March 2024, the first and second stages of the rocket successfully separated, but the booster unexpectedly disintegrated after attempting to land and ignite, causing the spacecraft to lose contact during re-entry into the atmosphere. During the fourth test flight in June 2024, the first and second stages of the rocket successfully separated and landed in the Gulf of Mexico and Indian Ocean as planned.
