Tonight, Musk has become the focus of global attention.
At around 21: 25 on March 14th, Beijing time, Musk’s SpaceX heavy-duty launch vehicle was ignited and launched. At present, the results of the third test flight have far exceeded the previous two.
SpaceX announced that the propellant transfer demonstration (T+24 minutes) and the payload door closing process (T+28 minutes) of the starship spacecraft were successfully completed. Musk, the founder of SpaceX, announced on the social platform that the "Starship" has reached the surrounding speed! Congratulations to the SpaceX team! !
This is the third test flight of Starship, and the first two tests exploded. On the first test flight last April, the rocket exploded a few minutes after liftoff; On the second test flight in November, Starship separated the first booster from the upper spacecraft. In Musk’s vision, the "starship" is a vehicle to send humans to Mars, which is also the core goal of his creation of SpaceX.
Thanks to the rapid development momentum, SpaceX’s valuation is rising wildly. According to a report by Bloomberg in December last year, SpaceX’s latest valuation reached US$ 180 billion (about RMB 1,294 billion), second only to ByteDance among unicorn enterprises in the world.
Starship launched into space.
On the evening of March 14th, Beijing time, SpaceX, founded by Musk, launched the third test flight of the Starship heavy launch vehicle.
According to the latest news, the rocket with the largest volume and the strongest thrust in the history of the earth, with the vision of establishing a permanent base on the moon and landing on Mars, has been ignited and launched at around 21: 25 Beijing time.
After launching T+3 minutes, the first and second stages of the Starship heavy launch vehicle were successfully separated.
Eight minutes after the launch of T+,the six raptor engines of Starship successfully turned off, and the spacecraft entered the taxiing phase. It is expected that the engines will be restarted at T+40 minutes. At present, the results of the third test flight have far exceeded the previous two.
SpaceX announced that the propellant transfer demonstration (T+24 minutes) and the payload door closing process (T+28 minutes) of Starship spacecraft were successfully completed. According to the process, the next step is to restart the engine (T+40 minutes) and re-enter the atmosphere (T+49 minutes).
SpaceX said that the T+40-minute engine re-ignition process may have been skipped. In any case, the starship will now embark on the road to the Indian Ocean.
T+1 hour and 3 minutes later, SpaceX said that it has lost the signal with the starship spacecraft and confirmed that it has lost contact with the spacecraft. Today’s test flight can no longer carry out the last step of landing in the Indian Ocean.
After the rocket was launched, later on the 14th, SpaceX founder Musk announced on the social platform that the "Starship" had reached the circling speed! Congratulations to the SpaceX team! !
According to SpaceX official website, on the basis of the second test flight, the third test flight will try more targets, including opening/closing the payload door of the starship aircraft and re-igniting the Raptor engine in space for the first time.
According to the overall process, after taking off, the starship assembly needs to separate the "overweight" propeller from the starship spacecraft, and then the propeller will try to land (on the water), and the spacecraft will continue to carry out a series of tests, and finally fall into the Indian Ocean under controlled conditions.
According to the official timetable, assuming all goes well, the whole process will take about 64 minutes.
On the afternoon of March 13th, local time, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave the final "green light" for the test flight. The agency said in a statement that it has confirmed that the mission meets all safety, environmental and policy requirements.
In the live online audio broadcast at the end of February this year, elon musk, the founder of SpaceX, once said that the third test flight of Starship can reach the Earth orbit with a probability of 70%-80%. Today’s rockets are much better than during the first and second test flights.
Musk’s "ambition"
This is the third test flight of Starship, and the first two tests exploded.
On April 20th, 2023, the integrated system of the "Starship" rocket and spacecraft made its first test flight. Some of the 33 main engines of the "overweight" booster failed to turn off, which caused the "Starship" to roll in the air only three minutes after launch and triggered the self-destruction program. In addition, the rocket’s super thrust also caused heavy damage to the launch site.
On November 18th of the same year, SpaceX launched the Starship rocket for the second time. After the rocket was launched for less than 3 minutes, the first and second stages were successfully separated. However, the mission control center lost contact with the Starship spacecraft and was forced to start the self-destruction system. CNN reported that the second test flight of Starship went further than when it was tried in April 2023.
According to SpaceX’s explanation, every step of these launches is to achieve future moon landing and longer-term goals.
According to official website of SpaceX, the new generation of heavy-duty launch vehicle "Starship" is by far the largest and most powerful launch vehicle in the world, with a total height of about 120m and a diameter of about 9m. The rocket consists of two parts, the bottom is a "super heavy" booster, about 69 meters high, equipped with multiple "Raptor" engines; At the top is a spaceship, which is about 50 meters high and can be reused.
In Musk’s vision, the "starship" is a vehicle to send humans to Mars, which is also the core goal of his creation of SpaceX.
Up to now, NASA has invested nearly $4 billion in this project. NASA chose "Starship" to carry out the Artemis project in the future and carry astronauts to the moon. According to the current arrangement, Artemis’ manned moon landing plan may be implemented in September 2026.
1.3 trillion super unicorn
In recent years, outside the earth’s atmosphere, Musk’s SpaceX company has developed very rapidly.
According to statistics, in 2023, the world launched a total of 223 launch vehicles and 98 SpaceX launches, accounting for 45% of the global total, slightly less than the sum of other countries; A total of 2,945 satellites were launched in the world, and 2,514 satellites were launched by SpaceX, accounting for 87% of the global total and 6.7 times that of other countries.
In 2023, the United States launched 116 rockets, of which SpaceX accounted for 98 times. The former quasi-national team-ULA (United Launch Alliance, founded by Boeing and Lockheed Martin) only launched three times.
According to Musk’s plan, in 2024, when only falcons (including heavy falcons) are available, SpaceX will launch 144 times, accounting for 90% of the global total, 10 times that of other countries.
Once the starship matures, SpaceX’s orbital quality will account for 99% of the world’s total, which is 100 times that of other countries.
In terms of revenue, estimates show that SpaceX’s revenue has doubled continuously in the past three years, from $2.3 billion in 2021 to $8.7 billion. In 2023, it even achieved quarterly profit for the first time, which became an important milestone of this business model.
Source: payloadspace
According to the forecast, in 2024, SpaceX’s annual revenue will reach about 13.3 billion US dollars (about 95.6 billion yuan). Among them, the rocket launch revenue will increase by more than 55% year-on-year, and the revenue will reach 5.47 billion US dollars, while the growth rate of the star chain will exceed 63%, and the revenue is expected to exceed 6.9 billion US dollars.
Thanks to the rapid development momentum, SpaceX’s valuation has climbed again in the cold winter of technology. According to a report by Bloomberg last December, SpaceX’s latest valuation reached US$ 180 billion (about RMB 1,294 billion), second only to ByteDance among unicorns in the world.
At present, SpaceX is building a closed-loop ecology composed of new space scenes such as rocket manufacturing and launch, satellite Internet, space travel and deep space exploration.
Faced with this huge commercial blue ocean, institutions such as Blue Origin founded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, ULA jointly supported by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, Arianespace, a joint venture of the European Space Agency, and the Russian Space Agency are all competing with SpaceX.
Original title: "Late at night! Musk, big announcement! 》
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