SpaceX’s latest Starship the prototype needs some maintenance work before it can take to the skies.
On Wednesday (January 13), the Starship SN9 prototype carried out three “static fire” tests in rapid succession on the SpaceX website in South Texas, starting its three Raptor engines while the vehicle remained anchored to the ground.
These brief burns were part of the SN9’s pre-flight routine, which is being prepared for a high altitude test. That big jump could have happened already this weekend, if Wednesday’s static fires had gone perfectly. But apparently there were some hiccups.
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“Two of the engines need minor repairs, so they will be replaced,” SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said via Twitter this morning (January 15th).
Musk did not give an expected release date for SN9. But he said, in another tweet, which “probably is wise” to perform another static shot with the vehicle after the engine change is complete. Therefore, a weekend release for SN9 seems quite unlikely.
SpaceX is developing the Starship to take people and cargo to the Moon, Mars and other distant destinations. The architecture consists of a 50-meter-high spacecraft called Starship and a giant rocket known as the Super Heavy. Both vehicles will be fully and quickly reusable, said Musk.
The next SN9 flight is expected to be similar to that of its predecessor, the three-engine SN8, which flew about 7.8 miles (12.5 kilometers) across Texas skies on December 9. That flight, the first high altitude test for any prototype starship, went extremely well, Musk said, even though SN8 has not landed.
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.