Explosions and fires on ships: the American space is failing
The United States intends to return to the moon, well, or at least go there, if you believe in the theory of "moon conspiracy." Then the asteroid belt, Mars ... Space exploration and space budgets in the United States are the destiny of four private corporations: ULA, Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman and SpaceX. The latter is the most media-promoted, thanks to its founder, "PR genius" Ilon Mask.
There is money in the USA for space. There is also an already approved program for the exploration of the moon, which is supported by President Donald Trump. Probably the first person to set foot on the surface of an earthly satellite in the 21st century will be a woman. It can be assumed that she will be African American. The Martian program is already miscalculating in the USA for the future.
However, in technical terms, so far, things are not in the best way. Despite “their import substitution,” NASA astronauts are still flying the ISS on Soyuz, and the Russian RD-180 are on their Atlas V launch vehicles. Washington seriously intends to get rid of its dependence on our country, so the money invested is very serious.
Judging by SpaceX, the Americans' backswing is very strong, but the implementation so far does not correspond to it. No, the company of Ilon Mask should be given credit, its achievements can in no way be diminished. She developed her own Merlin engines, a reusable launch vehicle, Dragon cargo ship, and worked technology the return of the first step to the offshore platform. This is all impressive and deserves respect.
But other, more ambitious undertakings, while remain in the stage of difficult projects. Their praiseworthy ambitiousness can be judged by the SpaceX announced plans:
Starship - "star ship", which is supposed to deliver the Americans to Mars. According to the idea of the Mask, it should be reusable, sit on any surface of any planet of the solar system. It sounds great, but it’s still a long way to the Starship incarnation.
During a recent test, a small copy of it called Starhopper turned into a fireball while trying to fly ... 20 meters. The most dangerous methane leak occurred, which indicates the project’s “dampness”. The experts also consider the new “Raptor” engine developed by SpaceX to replace the RD-180 as “raw”. Musk said that the power of his power plant is higher than that of the Russian one. But domestic manufacturers were somewhat discouraged by the fact that the real "margin of safety" of the RD-180 is 10% higher than stated on the technical data sheet.
It went wrong with the American company and with the SuperDracco engine for the Crew Dragon ship rescue capsule. The message that during its testing, an explosion occurred that destroyed the capsule caused great resonance. Fortunately, there were no passengers on it. The incident meant that the ship could not in the foreseeable future claim to replace the Russian Unions for delivery to the ISS.
This does not cause much gloating. Roscosmos also has problems, and they are systemic in nature. The most effective would be a joint exploration and peaceful exploration of outer space on an equal footing, instead of organizing the next military propaganda race.
There is money in the USA for space. There is also an already approved program for the exploration of the moon, which is supported by President Donald Trump. Probably the first person to set foot on the surface of an earthly satellite in the 21st century will be a woman. It can be assumed that she will be African American. The Martian program is already miscalculating in the USA for the future.
However, in technical terms, so far, things are not in the best way. Despite “their import substitution,” NASA astronauts are still flying the ISS on Soyuz, and the Russian RD-180 are on their Atlas V launch vehicles. Washington seriously intends to get rid of its dependence on our country, so the money invested is very serious.
Judging by SpaceX, the Americans' backswing is very strong, but the implementation so far does not correspond to it. No, the company of Ilon Mask should be given credit, its achievements can in no way be diminished. She developed her own Merlin engines, a reusable launch vehicle, Dragon cargo ship, and worked technology the return of the first step to the offshore platform. This is all impressive and deserves respect.
But other, more ambitious undertakings, while remain in the stage of difficult projects. Their praiseworthy ambitiousness can be judged by the SpaceX announced plans:
Future iterations of Starhopper will fly on three Raptor engines. In a fully operational starship there will be seats for 100 passengers and six engines. Starship will be launched using the huge Super Heavy launch vehicle, which will run on the 31st Raptor engine. The starship and booster will be reusable.
Starship - "star ship", which is supposed to deliver the Americans to Mars. According to the idea of the Mask, it should be reusable, sit on any surface of any planet of the solar system. It sounds great, but it’s still a long way to the Starship incarnation.
During a recent test, a small copy of it called Starhopper turned into a fireball while trying to fly ... 20 meters. The most dangerous methane leak occurred, which indicates the project’s “dampness”. The experts also consider the new “Raptor” engine developed by SpaceX to replace the RD-180 as “raw”. Musk said that the power of his power plant is higher than that of the Russian one. But domestic manufacturers were somewhat discouraged by the fact that the real "margin of safety" of the RD-180 is 10% higher than stated on the technical data sheet.
It went wrong with the American company and with the SuperDracco engine for the Crew Dragon ship rescue capsule. The message that during its testing, an explosion occurred that destroyed the capsule caused great resonance. Fortunately, there were no passengers on it. The incident meant that the ship could not in the foreseeable future claim to replace the Russian Unions for delivery to the ISS.
This does not cause much gloating. Roscosmos also has problems, and they are systemic in nature. The most effective would be a joint exploration and peaceful exploration of outer space on an equal footing, instead of organizing the next military propaganda race.
Information