SpaceX’s Starship Explodes During First Orbital Test Flight (www.wired.com)

For those, SpaceX has agreed to deliver a modified version of Starship that will bring astronauts from an Orion capsule in lunar orbit to the moons surface and back again.

In the longterm future, Starship might be used for lunar mining missions and for refueling flights en route from Earth to Mars, says Phil Metzger, a planetary scientist at the University of Central Florida who studies space economics.

The company has had difficulties during tests of Starship prototypes, including apressure test in 2019 when an upper tank burst and an explosion during arocket engine test in 2020.Multiple loweraltitudeflight tests have ended in explosions.

SpaceX engineers scrubbed their first attempt for the orbital test flight on April 17 due to a frozen valve in the booster rockets pressurization system, similar to the problems NASA faced last year.

SpaceXs liquid methane and oxygenfueled Super Heavy, powered by 33 Raptor engines, could be considered a potential rival to NASAsSLS rocket.

But SpaceXs spacecraft can carry a much larger payload, and it will likely become far cheaper because of its reusability.

NASAs counting on SpaceXa frequent commercial partner and the recipient of billions of dollars in agency investmentsto get Starship working properly.