Monday 17 April, starting at 1.45 pm, the channel Focus follows in exclusive direct for Italy the highly anticipated first flight test of the rocket “Starship” of SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company. The event will also be repeated in the early evening, at 21:15.
The special
“Starship Live: The Big Test, Before the Moon”which promises to be the most important astronautical event of 2023, is conducted by journalist and popularizer
Luigi Bignami with numerous experts in the studio. Among these, Francesco Topputo, aerospace engineer of PoliMi, expert on nano-satellites; Filippo Maggi, aerospace engineer of PoliMi, expert in missile propulsion; Cesare Guaita, biochemist and populariser of the Milan Planetarium, and a representation of students from the rocketry class of the Milan Polytechnic.
The vehicle in SpaceX’s plans will take man back to the moon and then land on Mars and is the most powerful and the highest (120 meters) ever built by man. Completely reusable, it is made up of the rocket and the spacecraft that Musk has christened Super Heavy and Starship respectively.
The launch will be performed from Boca Chica, Texas, for a 90-minute (unmanned) flight. Starship will make an (almost) complete orbit around the Earth, and then ditch in the Pacific, off the coast of Hawaii