SpaceX in talks to land and recover Starship rocket off Australia's coast
By Joey Roulette
WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) -SpaceX is in talks with U.S. and Australian officials to land and recover one of its Starship rockets off Australia's coast, a possible first step toward a bigger presence for Elon Musk's company in the region as the two countries bolster security ties, according to three people familiar with the plans.
Since a Starship rocket made a controlled splashdown for the first time in June in the Indian Ocean, SpaceX has been eager to expand its testing campaign. Successful landings and recovery of the boosters afterward are important elements of the speedy development of the giant and reusable rocket designed to launch satellites to orbit and land astronauts on the moon.
The plan would be to launch Starship from a SpaceX facility in Texas, land it in the sea off Australia's coast and recover it on Australian territory. Getting permission to do so would require loosening U.S. export controls on sophisticated space technologies bound for Australia, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
President Joe Biden's administration already has sought to ease similar restrictions within the AUKUS security alliance, a grouping of the United States, Australia and Britain aimed at countering China.
SpaceX, the U.S. Space Force and the Australian Space Agency did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Towing Starship, after it has landed in the ocean or on a barge, to a nearby port on Australia's western or northern coasts would be ideal, though more specific plans and locations are still being discussed, the sources said.
The conversations underscore the U.S. determination to help Australia build up its military as a deterrent to an increasingly assertive China in the region.
The proposed SpaceX arrangement would put more trust in a close American ally that for years has sought to expand its space defense program, strengthen civil and military space ties with the United States and stimulate its own space industrial base.
Discussions in recent weeks between SpaceX executives and U.S. and Australian officials have focused on regulatory hurdles in bringing a recovered Starship booster ashore in a foreign country, the sources said. Because the talks are ongoing, the timing of any Starship landing off Australia remained unclear.
The sources said the proposed test-landings likely would be the first phase of a larger future Australian presence for SpaceX that could include launching from a facility on the continent or landing a Starship booster on the ground instead of the ocean, though discussions on those possibilities are in the early stages.
In developing its partially reusable Falcon 9 about a decade ago, SpaceX also made ocean-based test landings before attempting touchdowns on land and atop barges at sea. Falcon 9 is now SpaceX's workhorse rocket, and its first-stage booster has made hundreds of routine landings from space.
A TOWERING ROCKET
Starship is a 400-foot (120-meter) tall two-stage rocket designed to be fully reusable. It represents SpaceX's next-generation rocket system, meant to loft large batches of satellites into space, land NASA astronauts on the lunar surface and potentially ferry military cargo around the world in roughly 90 minutes.
Starship's June test flight was its most successful to date. Starship was launched from Texas toward space on a suborbital trajectory that sent it freefalling at hypersonic speeds back through Earth's atmosphere before reigniting its engines for a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean, about 90 minutes after launch. Its SuperHeavy booster landed in the Gulf of Mexico.
Previous test flights had ended with Starship disintegrating before a safe landing could be achieved. The June flight has led SpaceX to pursue a new phase of more complicated landing tests, according to multiple people familiar with the campaign.
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's conceptual "Rocket Cargo" program envisions using suborbital rockets to swiftly deliver military cargo around the world in 90 minutes, called point-to-point delivery. Some at the Pentagon viewed the June Starship test launch as a crucial demonstration of this program, according to U.S. defense officials.
A Starship launch from Texas and landing off Australia could further demonstrate point-to-point delivery.
While still in an early phase, the delivery time for rocket-based cargo around the planet - taking advantage of orbital velocity of 17,000 miles per hour (27,350 kph) and a hypersonic reentry through Earth's atmosphere - would be a fraction of the roughly 12 to 24 hours typically needed for traditional aircraft.
SpaceX since 2021 has been studying how to use to Starship for those deliveries under a $102 million Pentagon contract. The program will graduate to a more serious prototype effort with the U.S. Space Force next year, according to 2025 budget documents.
SpaceX's Starship survives return to Earth, aces landing test on fourth try nL1N3I40TX
SpaceX Starship disintegrates after completing most of third test flight nL2N3FS0WA
SpaceX's Falcon 9 grounded after failure dooms batch of Starlink satellites nL1N3J40FZ
Reporting by Joey Roulette; editing by Will Dunham and Chris Sanders
ताजातरीन समाचार
अस्वीकरण: XM Group के सत्व केवल निष्पादन वाली सेवा और हमारी ऑनलाइन व्यापार सुविधा में पहुँच प्रदान करते हैं, ताकि व्यक्ति वेबसाइट पर या उसके जरिए उपलब्ध सामग्री को देख सके और/या उसका उपयोग कर सके। इसका प्रयोजन इसे बदलना या विस्तार देना नहीं है, न ही वह इसे बदलता या विस्तार देता है। इस तरह की पहुँच हमेशा ही निम्नलिखित के अधीन रहेगी: (1) नियम और शर्तें; (2) जोखिम चेतावनियाँ; और (3) पूर्ण अस्वीकरण। इसलिए ऐसी जानकारी सामान्य सूचना से अधिक कुछ भी नहीं है। विशेष रूप से, कृपया इससे अवगत रहें कि हमारी ऑनलाइन व्यापार सुविधा की सामग्रियाँ न तो किसी चीज का अनुरोध करती हैं, न ही वित्तीय बाजारों में प्रवेश करने की पेशकश ही करती हैं। किसी भी वित्तीय बाजार में व्यापार करने के साथ आपकी पूँजी को उल्लेखनीय जोखिम है।
हमारी ऑनलाइन व्यापार सुविधा में प्रकाशित सभी सामग्रियाँ शैक्षणिक/सूचनात्मक प्रयोजनों मात्र के लिए हैं, और इनमें वित्तीय, निवेश टैक्स या व्यापार सलाह और सुझाव नहीं हैं - न ही ऐसा समझना चाहिए कि इनमें ये सब हैं; न ही इनमें हमारी व्यापार कीमतों का अभिलेख है; न ही इनमें किसी वित्तीय उपकरण में लेन-देन करने का निमंत्रण या अनुरोध है; न ही ये आपको अवांछित वित्तयी प्रोमोशन पेश करती हैं।
इस वेबसाइट में मौजूद कोई भी तृतीय पक्षीय सामग्री, तथा XM द्वारा तैयार की गई सामग्रियाँ, जैसे: अभिप्राय, समाचार, अनुसंधान, विश्लेषण, कीमतें और अन्य सूचनाएँ या तृतीय पक्षों की साइटों के लिंक, "जैसा-है-वैसा" के आधार पर बाजार के बारे में सामान्य टिप्पणी के रूप में उपलब्ध कराई गई हैं, और वे निवेश हेतु सलाह नहीं हैं। जिस हद तक कीसी सामग्री को निवेश अनुसंधान मान लिया जाता है, उस हद तक आपको ध्यान में रखना होगा और इसे स्वीकार करना होगा कि वह सामग्री इस उद्देश्य से और निवेश अनुसंधान की स्वतंत्रता को बढ़ावा देने के लिए कानूनी आवश्यकताओं के मुताबिक, तैयार नहीं की गई है, और इसलिए उसे प्रासंगिक कानूनों और विनियमों के तहत विपणन संप्रेषण माना जाएगा। कृपया सुनिश्चित करें कि आपने गैर-आश्रित निवेश के बारे में हमारी सूचना को पढ़ और समझ लिया है। पीछे दी गई जानकारी के बारे में अनुसंधान और जोखिम चेतावनी यहाँ उपलब्ध है।
