SpaceX getting ready for Starship's first test flight

WASHINGTON – The initial prototype of SpaceX's next-generation reusable launcher will make its first test flight, albeit at low altitude, early next week, Elon Musk announced on July 12.

In a series of night tweets, SpaceX founder and CEO Musk announced that the "Starhopper" vehicle that SpaceX is mounting on its test site near Brownsville, Texas, will make its first jump on July 16 installed a Raptor engine in the vehicle.

~ 20m high and side for the first flight. Mk1 Starship is expected to reach 20 km in a few months.

– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2019

Musk said that during the next test, the vehicle would cross about twenty meters before and until landing. The company plans, over time, to expand the flight envelope using this vehicle and another prototype. "Mk1 Starship is expected to reach 20 km in a few months," said Musk.

The next test will be Starhopper's first free flight, although the vehicle ran several tests in April, including one that briefly lifted it off the ground while remaining attached to its launch pad. SpaceX is expected to begin free flight testing of the vehicle in June, but problems with the development of the Raptor engine tests, involving an apparent mechanical problem with part of the engine's turbomachine, have delayed flights.

The Texas vehicle is one of two Starship prototypes under construction. A second vehicle is under construction in Cocoa, Florida, near Cape Canaveral, but the company did not say when it would begin testing. Musk has already indicated that the two teams work independently, but are required to share their views.

SpaceX's ultimate goal is for Starship to be the reusable top floor of a new generation launch vehicle, launched at the top of a big propeller called Super Heavy. This combined system, said Musk, will be able to place 100 to 125 metric tons of "true payload into a useful orbit", such as the company's Starlink broadband communications satellites, and then back to Earth. He noted that it works at 30 to 40 metric tons in a geostationary transfer orbit.

Musk also suggested that he provide an update on Starship's development and potential modifications to its design by the end of July. Musk had previously stated that he would introduce the system once the company began piloting the prototype spacecraft.