SpaceX to test mini version of Big Falcon Rocket with modified Falcon 9
Elon Musk says on Twitter that SpaceX plans to test a smaller version of the Big Falcon Rocket spacecraft in June next year. The BFR spacecraft is placed on top of a modified Falcon 9, as if it were the second, upper stage.
Musk says that the modification of a Falcon 9 rocket essentially causes a smaller version of the spacecraft portion of the Big Falcon Rocket in development to form the top portion of the rocket. That probably means that the Falcon 9’s distinctive nose cone or fairing will have to make way for the spacecraft in its entirety, as is the case with the BFR. SpaceX is doing this for a number of technologies for the Big Falcon Rocket to test, which would be impossible without actual spaceflight. This involves testing ultralight heat shields and how rudders and control surfaces hold up at high speeds.
Musk says the flight is not intended to test how the mini-BFR can land vertically; he states that SpaceX already has a good grasp of the technology for landing with the thrusters. He reports that SpaceX is in the process of building a BFR development vessel that will reach supersonic speeds and with which actual landings are tested. The upper stage of the BFR is in fact a spaceship that should be able to land vertically by means of three landing legs integrated in the tail fins. Two of these fins are attached to a large hinge, which allows them to be rotated outwards on reentry to form a sort of wing and thus provide more stabilization.
The Big Falcon Rocket must eventually become completely reusable and is intended, among other things, to make space flights to and from Mars possible. The big new 118 meter higher rocket will eventually be powered by 31 Raptor engines that deliver 5400 tons of thrust. The intention was that two BFR ships would go to Mars in 2022 and that astronauts would also fly to the red planet in 2024, but Musk recently seemed to indicate that there is a good chance that this schedule will be moved by two years. . In any case, the BFR will also be used to treat tourists to a circle around the moon; this flight will take place no earlier than 2023.
An impression of some BFR spacecraft that have landed on Mars. A small version of these spaceships will be placed on a modified Falcon 9 rocket next June as the top, second rocket stage.