SpaceX, with relatively little push and circumstance, conducted another successful test flight for its starship, the company’s vehicle is the target of long-distance space flight.
The inaugural and 150-meter test flight took place in Boca Chika, Texas on Friday. The company called it a “hop” flight, as it rarely flew any distance. Everything went smoothly, though, making it the second such successful test flight. The company first landed the Hope flight in August.
SpaceX released a video of the launch, short voyage and landing. The body of Starship’s test vaguely looks like a giant flying water bottle – but in a strange way it makes the flight even more marvelous, as if it were ignoring the laws of physics. (The fully completed starship will have a nasal cone and landing legs.)
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, said earlier this summer that Starship is at the top of the company’s to-do list. He told crews to make rapid progress on long-distance spacecraft – which would one day support crew missions to other planets – should be their “top priority” “dramatically and immediately.”
At least in theory, the giant craft is believed to be able to carry 100 passengers to the moon, Mars or any other space.
The starship serves as a large, long-range spacecraft capable of carrying passengers or cargo between Earth orbits, between planetary locations and places on Earth. pic.twitter.com/NoNoOjBW50
– SpaceX (SpaceX) September 29, 2019
SpaceX unveiled the reusable Starship in 2019. TechCrunch called the successful hop tests “a very good sign for the spacecraft’s development program,” as other designs have never reached this stage. So those two short tests are down, but there is still a long way to go before Mars.
