SpaceX has just launched its latest Starship prototype, which keeps the vehicle on course this week for a test flight at high altitude.
The three Raptor engines of Starship SN11 (“Series # 11”) briefly ignited today (March 22) at 09:56 EDT (1356 GMT) during a static fire test at SpaceX’s South Texas facilities, near the Gulf Coast town of Boca Chica.
Static fire tests, during which engines are ignited while a vehicle remains anchored to the ground, are a standard forward flight case for SpaceX rockets. SN11’s upcoming flight takes the stainless steel vehicle to a maximum altitude of approximately 10 kilometers. This unmanned excursion could happen according to Wednesday (March 24) scheduled road closures in the Boca Chica area.
Starship and Super Heavy: SpaceX’s Mars colonizing vehicles in images
SpaceX develops Starship to transport humans and cargo to the moon, Mars and other distant destinations. The architecture consists of two reusable components – a 165-meter (50-meter) spaceship called Starship and a giant first-stage booster known as the Super Heavy. Both vehicles are powered by Raptor engines – six for Starship and about 30 for Super Heavy.
Three Starship prototypes have been reported on test flights over the past few months. SN8 and SN9 fared very well to the touch, and exploded when they hit the runway. SN10, which flew on March 3, fared even better: the prototype ended up in one piece, but exploded about eight minutes later.
SpaceX will soon also launch Super Heavy through the run. Last week, the company’s founder and CEO, Elon Musk the first Super Heavy ever launched, which he described as a “production signpost.” The next Super Heavy to build SpaceX will actually fly, the billionaire entrepreneur said.
We should expect a lot of Starship and Super Heavy tests in the coming weeks and months. Musk recently said that SpaceX intends to launch an orbital test flight with Starship this year, and that he expects the spaceship rocket duo to be fully operational by 2023.
SpaceX tried to light Starship SN11 for the first time last Monday (March 15), but the static fire attempt was stopped.
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.