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SpaceX’s latest prototype spacecraft has just roared.
The Starship SN10 (“Serial No. 10”) vehicle performed its first “static fire” test on Tuesday, February 23, firing its three Raptor engines for a few seconds at 6:03 p.m. EST (23:03 GMT) at SpaceX. Site in South Texas, near the village of Boca Chica on the Gulf Coast.
Static fires, in which the engines ignite briefly while a rocket remains anchored to the ground, is a common pre-flight check for SpaceX. If all went well with today’s test, SN10 remains on track for an upcoming launch – maybe from Thursday (February 25) – on a 10-kilometer-high demonstration flight in the skies of South Texas.
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Starship SN10 static fire! Hope this was a great test. 🔥🚀🔥 @ NASASpaceflight pic.twitter.com/J6cVUypRgYFebruary 23, 2021
This will be the third high altitude test for a Starship vehicle, following similar escapades in December 2020 and February 2 this year by the two immediate predecessors of SN10, SN8 and SN9. These two flights went well until the very end; SN8 and SN9 slammed violently onto their landing platforms, exploding into dramatic fireballs.
These flights are a crucial part of the development path of Starship, which SpaceX sees as the vehicle that will make colonization of Mars economically feasible. The Starship system will consist of two fully reusable parts: a 165-foot-tall (50-meter) spacecraft called the Starship, and a massive rocket known as the Super Heavy.
The final starship will have six Raptors, and Super Heavy will sport around 30 of the engines, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said. The spaceship will be powerful enough to launch off the Moon and Mars, but the spaceship will need Super Heavy to leave Earth.
We’ll likely see many more Starship test flights over the coming weeks and months, regardless of when SN10 launches. Musk recently said SpaceX aims to launch a prototype into Earth orbit this year, and he envisions Starship regularly carrying people by 2023.
Mike Wall is the author of “Over there“(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book on the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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