SpaceX’s first suborbital flight of Super Heavy rocket fails

SpaceX's first suborbital flight of Super Heavy rocket fails

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The American space company SpaceX failed to launch a Super Heavy launch vehicle with a Starship spacecraft on its first suborbital flight. A recording of the live broadcast of the event is available on YouTube.

The launch was planned in Texas from Starbase on April 17 at 16:20 Moscow time. The success of the mission depended on weather conditions, the condition of the launch vehicle, and the absence of foreign objects near the spaceport.

A retest will be carried out within 48 hours. The reasons for the cancellation of the rocket launch are not reported.

“Looks like the pressure valve is frozen, it won’t work any time soon, the launch won’t take place today,” SpaceX founder Elon Musk explained on Twitter.

The rocket is equipped with 33 first-stage methane engines and six second-stage engines. Super Heavy was supposed to reach a suborbital speed of 28,160 km / h – and rise to a height of 234 km. The booster would return to Earth near the Hawaiian Islands in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Starship, which is on board Super Heavy, is planned to be used to deliver crew and cargo to various Earth orbits, as well as on lunar and Martian missions.

March 3 SpaceX launched the Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying four people, including Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. The spacecraft successfully docked with the ISS.

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