SpaceX just released its latest Starship prototype, keeping the vehicle on track for a high-altitude test flight this week.
The three Raptor engines Starship SN11 (“Serial No. 11”) briefly caught fire today (March 22) at 9:56 am EDT (1356 GMT) during a static fire test at SpaceX’s facility in southern Texas, near the village of Boca Chica on the Gulf Coast.
Static fire tests, during which the engines are lit while the vehicle remains anchored to the ground, are a standard pre-flight check for SpaceX rockets. The next SN11 flight will take the stainless steel vehicle to a maximum altitude of about 6.2 miles (10 kilometers). This tour can happen as early as Wednesday (March 24), according to scheduled road closures in the Boca Chica area.
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SpaceX is developing the Starship to transport people and cargo to the Moon, Mars and other distant destinations. The architecture consists of two reusable components – a 50-meter-high spacecraft called Starship and a giant first-stage booster known as the Super Heavy. Both vehicles will be powered by Raptor engines – six for Starship and about 30 for Super Heavy.
Three prototype starships have flown into the sky on high-altitude test flights in recent months. SN8 and SN9 performed very well until the touchdown, exploding on reaching the airfield. The SN10, which flew on March 3, performed even better: the prototype landed in one piece, but exploded about eight minutes later.
Soon, SpaceX will also begin testing the Super Heavy. Last week, the company’s founder and CEO, Elon Musk unveiled the first Super Heavyweight of all time, which he described as a “production discoverer”. The next Super Heavy that SpaceX builds will actually fly, said the billionaire businessman.
We should expect a lot of Starship and Super Heavy tests in the coming weeks and months. Musk recently said that SpaceX plans to launch an orbital test flight with the Starship this year, and that he expects the double rocket ship to be fully operational by 2023.
SpaceX first tried to light the Starship SN11 last Monday (March 15), but this attempt at static fire was aborted.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out there“(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book on the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.