By Arianna Dominici '25
Space exploration can be a daunting task and frightening endeavor, yet this hasn’t prevented companies and engineers from furthering relevant research and pushing scientific boundaries.
Although Texas soil began to tremble last Sunday, the cause was not
connected to an earthquake or meteor, but a less than natural occurrence. On October 13th, 2024, Space X’s launch site caused this shake due to their latest stunt: flying Super Heavy, a 233-foot rocket booster, back to its launch site and plucking this marvel out of the air via two large mechanical arms. Super Heavy is meant to be fully reusable and will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and return to the launch site after use, a notability sustainable function. Prior to this notable success last Sunday were four launches that sent the Starship rocket into the sea of the Gulf of Mexico. A few of the rocket flaps began to burn, but the damage luckily doesn’t hold a flame to the previous failure. Furthermore, these events serve as a good reminder that trial and error will eventually lead to success. For some background information, a rocket booster is a rocket engine used to “launch vehicles” and achieve “lift-off by providing additional thrust during the initial stages of flight,” according to ScienceDirect.
Elon Musk, although an often problematic figure in the social media and political verse, has succeeded as the face of SpaceX. Still, something to consider would be how the future plans of his company and SpaceX’s feud with the FAA, or the Federal Aviation Administration, will change. Musk’s desire to send people to Mars is a secret to no one, but his next focus will seemingly revolve around sending the Starship spacecraft to the
surface of the Earth’s moon. The SpaceX website claims that Starship missions are capable of conducting “scientific research to improve life back on Earth as well as raise awareness to a global audience.” Following this claim is a button prompting users to “join a mission,” so in the name of curiosity, I clicked to join. What followed was a fairly simple information form that required my country, age (18+), whether or not I was financially qualified, desired destination, mission year, and any mission objectives. SpaceX cannot confirm whether or not they will send me to space if I fill out this form, but the concept of thousands or potentially millions of people signing up to vacation to earth's orbit, the international space station, the commercial space station, the moon, or mars is very intriguing.
All Photos Courtesy of apnews.com and nytimes.com
Sources: spacex.com, sciencedirect.com, nytimes.com
Edited by Aryana Mehran '26, Catherine Polatidis '26 and Ms. Brilliant
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