SpaceX’s latest Starship prototype takes to the air on Wednesday (January 27), if everything goes according to plan.
The company originally intended to Starship SN9 vehicle yesterday (January 26) on a high flight on a test flight, but apparently thwarted by bad weather at SpaceX’s South Texas facilities near the town of Boca Chica on the Gulf Coast. According to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, the new target date is now Wednesday.
“We hope for the FAA approval of a test flight tomorrow afternoon,” Musk said early this morning via Twitter (January 26), with reference to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
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SN9’s upcoming flight is expected to be similar to the flight carried out by its predecessor last month. Starship SN8 – which, like SN9, had three Raptor engines – rose about 12.5 kilometers above Boca Chica on December 9th. handle all his tasks except the final task. SN8 landed a little too fast on the designated landing site and exploded in a dramatic fireball.
SpaceX develops Starship to take humans and cargo to the moon, Mars and other distant destinations. The architecture consists of two reusable elements: a 50 meter long spacecraft called Starship and a giant rocket called Super Heavy.
The last Starship will be powered by six Raptors, and Super Heavy will have about 30 of the engines, Musk said. (Starship will be able to launch itself from the moon and from Mars, but will need Super Heavy to leave Earth.)
Many other Starship prototypes will follow SN8 and SN9 in the air in the near future, if all goes according to SpaceX’s plan. For example the SN10 vehicle is fully composed and is expected to begin testing soon.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out there“(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.