SpaceX’s latest crewed spaceship design, the Starship, made its first fully successful test flight on Wednesday. This was the fifth such attempt, the previous four all seeing the rockets concerned blowing up, at different stages of the flight profile. This fifth flight involved an improved version of the spacecraft, designated SN15. This incorporated “multiple upgrades and improvements”, reported SpaceX Principal Integration Engineer John Insprucker. These changes were the result of analyses of the failure of the previous test flight. The test programme is being carried out at the company’s facility in Texas, known as Starbase, located near the small town of Boca Chica. After the flight, SpaceX founder, chief engineer and CEO, South African-born Elon Musk, tweeted “Starship landing nominal!” (Nominal is space jargon for everything functioned as designed and intended.)
from Engineering News | Home https://ift.tt/2Rpaiy5
