Trevor Mahlmann
It’s finally time to find out if Starship prototype Series 9 is going to be SN Good or SN Itow.
After a series of static fire tests on its latest Starship prototype, it looks like SpaceX will launch the full-scale vehicle from its rocket plant in South Texas on Monday afternoon. The nominal plan is that the prototype should rise to an altitude of as high as 12.5 km, maneuver a “belly flop” to simulate the bleeding of energy during a return through the Earth’s atmosphere, reorient itself and close the starting point lands.
Only a little over six weeks have passed since SpaceX conducted a similar test of the SN8 vehicle in South Texas. That flight test went well until the end of the flight. Due to a pressure failure in a fuel tank at the top of the vehicle, the Raptor engines of the vehicle were deprived of the fuel needed to make a soft landing.
The vehicle therefore landed a spectacular landing in the road.
Look at the fate of SN8.
Fortunately, the wreck was soon cleared. And in the nearby factory, SpaceX had the SN9 vehicle almost ready to go. It may have moved to the launch pad earlier, but mid-December, the SN9 prototype leaned over and fell into the wall of its high bay. It took a few days to complete and replace the flap. Then there were problems with the Raptor engines discovered in several static fire attempts. All of this and more required intensive work to get SN9 ready for its flight.
Sources said SpaceX is eager to get SN9 into the air because SN10 itself is almost ready to stretch its wings. We can probably expect the vehicle to move along the road to the launch site within a few days after SN9’s flight, regardless of the outcome. Regularly finding the bugs is one of the hallmarks of a hardware-rich program like the one that SpaceX uses to develop Starship.
The six-hour launch window for Monday’s test runs from 12:00 local time (18:00 UTC) to 18:00 (24:00 UTC). As with previous tests, a technical issue may cause the test campaign to interrupt the launch attempt at any stage. Should it be necessary, SpaceX has backup launch opportunities on Tuesday and Wednesday, although weather conditions appear more favorable for Tuesday.
It is likely that SpaceX will provide an official webcast of the launch effort; if so, it will be embedded here.