SpaceX
SpaceX has just launched a new return capsule, developed practically in secret until now.
The vehicle, called Starfalltook off on Tuesday, atop a Falcon 9 rocket, on a test mission designed to demonstrate that it can fly in a controlled and survive the descent incandescent through the Earth’s atmosphere.
The demonstration flight may have caught some space enthusiasts by surprise, as SpaceX has revealed so far few details about Starfall.
This secrecy extended to this Tuesday’s launch: the company interrupted the live broadcast around 10 minutes after take-off, a practice usually associated with national security missionsnote or
SpaceX presented a very brief Starfall video on the social network X, where it explains that the new vehicle “will allow affordable and regular access to the microgravity environment to scientific research and manufacturing in space“.
Details about the vehicle are scarce, but some data is available thanks to an environmental assessment last month by the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The analyzed the potential environmental impact of two Starfall demonstration reentries, one or both of which began with this Tuesday’s launch. It’s unclear how many Starfall vehicles were put into space by the Falcon 9 on this initial flight.
According to the FAA document, Starfall is a disk-shaped spaceshipmeasuring approximately 0.75 meters high and 3.1 meters in diameter. It weighs around 2,100 kg and can carry around 1,000 kg load.
The vehicle can be launched either by Falcon 9SpaceX’s powerful reusable rocket, as per Starshipthe megarocket that the company is developing, among other missions, to help humanity settle on the Moon and Mars.
Starfall is made up of two parts: a “top plate” aluminum, weighing around 1,400 kilos, and a heat shield detachable carbon fiber. The load goes on the top plate, which includes a 2.5 meter long compartment, 1.5 meters wide and 0.5 meters high.
As a comparison, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, which regularly transports people and cargo to the International Space Station, is about 4,5 metros high and 4.0 meters in diameter.
According to SpaceX’s specifications page, it can take around 6,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit and bring back around 3,000 kilograms.
A Starfall was not designed to transport astronautss. And unlike Dragon, the new return vehicle does not have a propulsion system traditional; has only “one guidance control system which uses compressed inert gas to perform small orientation maneuvers, such as pointing the capsule’s heat shield in the correct direction to safely re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere”, reads the FAA assessment.
According to the FAA’s environmental assessment, the Starfall capsules are unable to de-orbit by their own means: are limited to controlling the orientationo, in order to correctly aim the heat shield during re-entry into the atmosphere.
Each capsule re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere on a pre-planned trajectory and will dock with the help of parachutes. This ditching, at least in the case of the first two Starfall vehicles, will occur in the open sea, in the Pacific Ocean, about 1,300 kilometers off the west coast of the United States. Starfall, and its payload, will then be collected by recovery vessels.
According to the FAA document, SpaceX has two main objectives for Starfall; in the first place, “enable point-to-point delivery of critical cargo through space in short time frames”
Additionally, Starfall will also “create a self-sustaining commercial marketplace for manufacturing in spaceby offering, on scale, access to microgravity and vacuumstay in orbit and safe return from orbit as a service”.
The Falcon 9 has flown 165 times by 2025, and SpaceX plans to launch Starship thousands of times a year once this massive rocket is fully operational.
So, it shouldn’t be too difficult for the company to send hundreds of Starfall vehicles into space and bring them back, delivering to customers around the world. pharmaceutical products manufactured in space and other high-value goods.
