SpaceX’s Starship has taken flight once again, though it is not yet coming forward in space. The latest Starship prototype has completed another 150-meter hop test, proving that its engine is working properly and setting the stage for the promised high-alt altitude test flight.
Starship began life as the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), but changed its name in 2018 to focus more on Mars and lunar missions. SpaceX even signed up Japanese billionaire Yusuku Mezawa to get the first art around the moon in Starship. That mission is still scheduled for a short time in a few years.
Before the starship can go to Mars or the moon, it will have to undergo these initial tests. It started with a small prototype called the Starhopper, which soared into the sky in 2019. The ship also demonstrated the Falcon 9’s ical take-and-fly and landing capabilities by turning on a grassropper rocket. After StarHopper, SpaceX moved on to full-size prototypes of the rocket, which launched in late 2019 with the SN1. The ship could not take it on a test flight, but the SN5 flew 150 meters and land using the Raptor engine. This was the first free flight test for Starship and Raptor engines.
The SN6 prototype of SpaceX is the current operating version of the spacecraft. Showing that it can match the last rocket is an understandable first step, but the real test will be the next-height test. Before that happens, it has to stop looking like a grain silo. According to Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, the starship will need nose cones and fins before reaching about 20 kilometers in its next milestone launch, but the SN6 will never be found.
Starship’s second 150th flight test pic.twitter.com/ROa0kQZXLI
– SpaceX (SpaceX) September 4, 2020
SpaceX did not specify which vehicles would fly from one test to another. It can retire both SN5 and SN6 in favor of SN8 or SN9 for full-range rocket treatment. The company’s engineers will do whatever they can to get close to the working starship, which can fly several times a day and reach the targets of the solar system.
Eventually, Starship will mate with a lift vehicle called Super Heavy. Together, they will give the starship enough power to reach the moon, Mars and other distant objects. SpaceX has also suggested using starships for transport to Earth’s surface. Maybe all this will bear fruit one day, but right now the focus is on the 20KM test.
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