SpaceX has done it again! Today today (Thursday Sept. 3G), the company a Second hop test With Starship Prototype. This time, it was the sixth iteration (SN6) that successfully built a 150-meter (~ 500-foot) flight at their launch facility near Boca Chika, Texas. This latest test has given more recognition Starship Design and Raptor engine, two systems that Musk hopes will one day take humans to the moon, Mars, and beyond!
The test comes less than a month after SpaceX made the same hop with their SN5 prototype (which happened on 4 August Gust). On that occasion, the Starship He managed to reach 150 meters without incident and then land on a nearby pad, although in the process his landing did not quite stick and did not hurt one of his legs. Together, these tests have put SpaceX in a good position to start operating X-altitude (and ultimately, orbital) test flights.
Originally, the company was hoping to make this second attempt during Sunday’s otherwise jam-packed. In addition to the SN6 blasting from Boca Chika, SpaceX also planned to launch two launches from Cape Canaveral – the Starlink satellites (V1L11) and Argentina’s SOCOM 1B Earth observation satellite. In anticipation of the launch, Cameron County issued a three-day road closure notice.
This notice refers to Sunday (August 30) as the primary date – local time from 08:00 am to 08:00 pm (07:00 am – 07:00 pm EDT; 06:00 am – 06:00 pm PDT) ) – with backup opportunities for Mondays and Tuesdays from 08:00 AM to 08:00 AM. Unfortunately, flight testing was postponed on Thursday due to winds blowing around the launch site at 12:45 pm local time (10:45 am PDT; 01:45 pm EDT).
Both of these hop tests are an innovative way of success for SpaceX, a welcome change in pace given their previous failures. After completing the tests with the miniature prototype, On Starship Hop, The company lost Four complete-level prototypes in a row – MK1, SN1, and SN3, and SN4.
But of course, this loss was expected due to SpaceX’s fast-prototyping and “failure test” process. By creating a repetition of one Starship after another, then pushing it to its limits, SpaceX is able to collect large amounts of data, which has helped them improve the overall design. From the lessons they learned, the company now has many big goals.
This includes the assembly of SN7 and SN8 prototypes, which (according to Previous statement Created by Musk) will conduct its own 150-meter hop tests in the near future. Once it is finished, SpaceX will attempt a high-alt altitude hop test, which will include a prototype equipped with three Raptor engines, and will try to hop body flips 20 km (12.4 miles).
During a phone interview on Tuesday, as part of the 2020 Virtual Human to Mars Summit, Kasturi shared that his company is a first-stage booster ( Super heavy) This week. He also said that this time the design will be updated to show 28-less engine instead of 31. “It’s still a lot of engines,” he said. “We’ll focus on those engines.”
He suggested that “maybe next year” when a high-flying flight could take place. He also warned that there would still be a learning curve:
“The first people will not be able to work. This is a helpless field. No one has ever built a fully reusable orbital rocket … and then twice the size of Saturn V (the size of a lunar rocket) is something that is completely reusable… it’s really something else, it’s profound. It is the gateway to the galaxy or at least the solar system. ”
Further reading: CNET, 2020 HMS
