SpaceX conducted :
SpaceX conducted the third integrated flight test of its Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage from the company’s Starbase orbital launch pad at 8:25 a.m. CT on March 14. This flight test marks a significant milestone in providing NASA with a Starship HLS for its Artemis missions.
As part of NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon for the benefit of all, the agency is collaborating with SpaceX to develop the Starship human landing system (HLS). This HLS will enable astronauts to land near the Moon’s South Pole during both the Artemis III and Artemis IV missions. On March 14, SpaceX successfully conducted the third integrated flight test of its Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage. This achievement represents a major milestone in SpaceX’s endeavor to provide NASA with the Starship HLS for its Artemis missions.
A complement of 33 Raptor engines, fueled by super-cooled liquid methane and liquid oxygen, powered the Super Heavy booster with Starship stacked on top, from the company’s Starbase orbital launch pad at 8:25 a.m. CDT. Starship, using six Raptor engines, separated from the Super Heavy booster employing a hot-staging technique to fire the engines before separation at approximately three minutes into the flight, in accordance with the flight plan. This was the third flight test of the integrated Super Heavy-Starship system.
“With each flight test, SpaceX attempts increasingly ambitious objectives for Starship to learn as much as possible for future mission systems development. The ability to test key systems and processes in flight scenarios like these integrated tests allows both NASA and SpaceX to gather crucial data needed for the continued development of Starship HLS,” said Lisa Watson-Morgan, HLS Program Manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
This test accomplished several important firsts that will contribute to the development of Starship for Artemis lunar landing missions. The spacecraft reached its expected orbit and Starship completed the full-duration ascent burn.
One objective closely tied to future Artemis operations is the transfer of thousands of pounds of cryogenic propellant between internal tanks during the spacecraft’s coast phase as part of NASA’s Space Technology Missions Directorate 2020 Tipping Point awards. The propellant transfer demonstration operations were completed, and the NASA-SpaceX team is currently reviewing the flight data that was received. This Tipping Point technology demonstration is one of more than 20 development activities NASA is undertaking to solve the challenges of using cryogenic fluids during future missions.
As a key step toward understanding how super-cooled propellant sloshes within the tanks when the engines shut down, and how that movement affects Starship’s stability while in orbit, engineers will study flight test data to assess the performance of thrusters that control Starship’s orientation in space. They are also interested to learn more about how the fluid’s movement within the tanks can be settled to maximize propellant transfer efficiency and ensure Raptor engines receive needed propellant conditions to support restart in orbit.
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“Storing and transferring cryogenic propellant in orbit has never been attempted on this scale before,” stated Jeremy Kenny, project manager of NASA’s Cryogenic Fluid Management Portfolio at Marshall. “However, this technology is game-changing and essential for the development and advancement of science and exploration missions, both to the Moon, Mars, and even deeper into our solar system.”
As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency aims to achieve several milestones, including landing the first woman, the first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the lunar surface. Additionally, NASA is preparing for human expeditions to Mars. Commercial human landing systems play a crucial role in deep space exploration, alongside other essential components such as the Space Launch System rocket, the Orion spacecraft, advanced spacesuits and rovers, exploration ground systems, and the Gateway space station.
Learn more about NASA’s Human Landing System Program: Human Landing System
