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The SpaceX spacecraft has taken off again, although it is not yet heading into space. The latest Starship prototype has completed another 150-meter jump test, proving its engine is working properly and setting the stage for a promised high-altitude test flight.
The Starship began life as the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), but changed its name in 2018 with a greater focus on Mars and lunar missions. SpaceX even signed up Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa to take the starship’s first excursion around the moon. That mission is still vaguely scheduled for sometime in the next few years.
Before the starship can go to Mars or the Moon, it must pass these first tests. It started with a smaller prototype called the Starhopper, which took to the skies in 2019. This ship dates back to the Grasshopper rocket that demonstrated the Falcon 9’s vertical take-off and landing capabilities. After Starhopper, SpaceX moved to full-size rocket prototypes. complete, beginning with the SN1 in late 2019. That ship did not make it to a test flight, but the SN5 used a Raptor engine to fly 150 meters and land. This was the first free flight test for Starship and the Raptor engine.
SpaceX’s prototype SN6 is the latest version of the spacecraft in operation. Showing that it can match the latest rocket is an understandable first step, but the actual test will be the next high-altitude test. Before that can happen, it has to stop looking so much like a grain silo. According to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the spacecraft will need a nose cone and fins before it heads for its next historic launch at about 20 kilometers, but the SN6 may never get them.
Second Starship 150m Flight Test pic.twitter.com/ROa0kQZXLI
– SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 4, 2020
SpaceX has not specified which vehicles will fly from one test to the next. It could withdraw both SN5 and SN6 in favor of SN8 or SN9 for full high-altitude rocket treatment. The company’s engineers will do whatever gets them closer to a working spacecraft that can fly multiple times a day and hit distant targets in the solar system.
Eventually, the Starship will mate with a lift vehicle called the Super Heavy. Together, that will give the spacecraft enough power to reach the moon, Mars, and other distant objects. SpaceX has also suggested the use of Starship for transportation across the Earth’s surface. Maybe all of this will come true one day, but right now the focus is on the 20km test.
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