Saturn V record shaken

Greetings dear friends.

We have recently witnessed the assembly of the Starship assembly, giving us the first glimpse of what could be the largest and most powerful rocket system in history, a record that until now has been held by the mighty Saturn V, which had the great task of taking men into space during the Apollo missions, the same ones that took us to the Moon.

Comparison between superheavy rockets. Source: Wikipedia.com.

Of the super heavy rockets shown in the image above, the Energia was a Soviet rocket designed to put the Buran shuttle into orbit, and flew from 1987 to 1988. The Falcon Heavy 9 was also designed and built by Space X and first flew in 2018; the Yenisei rocket is still in development and we expect to see the Chinese Long Marcrh take off this year. And of the biggest of the big, the N1 never got off the ground and its program was cancelled in 1974; the SLS Blocks are still in the development phase, although Block 1 could lift off this year; the Saturn V operated successfully between 1967 and 1973, and if the Starship with its 120 m and 150 tons of useful mass successfully lifts off this year, it would dethrone the Saturn V as the largest of the superheavies.

Starship complete system. Source: SpaceX.

The Super Heavy B4 is the spacecraft's booster, and it is composed of no more than 29 Raptor engines, which (there's no other way to put it) is a brutal number. And even more surprising is that 27 of them have been installed in just 12 hours, with which SpaceX wants to demonstrate that it will be very fast to have this stage of the rocket ready for another mission. And with these 29 engines this rocket 69 meters long and 9 meters in diameter, will be able to generate 5400 tons of thrust at launch. With these figures, it surpasses the Saturn V, and even the N1, which although it was designed to operate with 30 NK15 engines, the raptor engine is much more powerful, so it will beat it in thrust even with one engine less.

The B4 and its 29 Raptor engines. Source: SpaceX.

The Super Heavy B4 was moved to the test area on Tuesday, August 3rd and the next day was placed on the orbital launch ramp where the tests will be performed. Then, on August 5th it was the turn of the S20 to be moved to the test area, at this moment it was already wearing the insulating slabs that protect the spacecraft from the friction with the atmosphere at its re-entry to the Earth, and that cover almost half of the vehicle; and after replacing some that were detached, the spacecraft was lifted and placed on the B4 the next day.

Both prototypes, the S20 and the B4, were together for only one hour, thus allowing us to observe the mighty 120 m high machine in its entirety for the first time. The S20 was then separated and returned to Starbase, so both vehicles will undergo further testing separately before reassembling the entire spacecraft again.

Although Elon Musk has said he wants to release the spacecraft in a month, there are still some tests to be done, and even some of the attachments that are contemplated in the design are not yet installed on these prototypes, in addition, infrastructure works in the tower and launch area are still to be completed, without considering that the FAA has not yet given the approval for takeoff, Apparently they are taking it easy, and rightly so, they should be concerned not only about the dimensions of the rocket that will be in the air, but also about its explosive capacity, since the B4 will be loaded with 3600 tons of fuel, which is composed of methane and liquid oxygen.

Another view of the impressive rocket. Source: SpaceX.

For now it is enough to say that the whole Starship looks more than impressive, and although there is still a lot of work to be done to have a fully operational ship, we have been able to have a great preview of what will be this powerful rocket that, if it flies, will become the largest in history.

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Thanks for coming by to read friends, I hope you liked the information. See you next time.

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