SpaceX has fired up its newest Starship prototype for the first time in history.
Hisana Thasneem
credits: SpaceX
SpaceX has fired up its newest Starship prototype for the first time in history. The SN9 vehicle's three engines lit up for about one second today at during a static-fire test at SpaceX's South Texas. SpaceX is prepping the vehicle for a test flight that is to be similar to the one made last month by its predecessor.
On Dec. 9, SN8, which was powered by three of SpaceX's next-generation Raptor engines, as SN9 was made to performed the Starship program's first-ever high-altitude hop, soaring about 7.8 miles into the South Texas skies. SN8 didn't stick on its landing and exploded. But this achieved milestone that SpaceX had ever achieved, leading company founder and CEO Elon Musk to declare the flight a big success.
SpaceX is developing Starship to take payloads and human into the Moon, Mars and other distant destinations. The system consists of two elements: a 165 feet tall spacecraft called Starship and a giant first-stage booster known as Super Heavy. Both Starship and Super Heavy will be fully and rapidly reusable according to Elon Musk.
Super Heavy will come back down to Earth for vertical landings, as the first stages of SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets already do. But touchdowns Starship's will be even more precise than those of the Falcons, which was made directly on the launch stand to improve turn-around time.
The Starship spacecraft, meanwhile, will make many roundtrips between Earth and Mars and many other designated targets. The vehicle just needs the roughly 30-engine Super Heavy to get off our relatively bulky and heavy planet and six-engine Starship will be powerful enough to launch itself off the surfaces of the moon and Mars.