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SpaceX's Starhopper prototype is literally dead.
In a night test on Friday, April 5, the test bench for SpaceX's future spaceX spacecraft reached its climax, moving up what appears to be a few feet above the ground at its launch site. SpaceX performed the test at the company's test site in Boca Chica, near Brownsville, Texas, as the safety wire on the vehicle.
"Starhopper just got up and hit the edge!" SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter today, showing a video of the brief jump. The video only lasts 2 seconds, but shows the Starhopper lifting up clearly in the middle of his fiery exhaust.
Related: SpaceX Starship and Super Heavy Rocket Mars in images
SpaceX's Starhopper prototype for Starship performs a test of hope using its Raptor rocket engine on April 5, 2019 at the company's test center in Boca Chica near Brownsville, Texas.
(Image: © Elon Musk / SpaceX)
Friday's test followed a previous jump late Wednesday (April 3) when SpaceX first launched the Raptor rocket engine on Starhopper. This test was also a success, Elon Musk said on Twitter.
SpaceX is in the early stages of testing Starhopper as part of the company's Starship program, which aims to develop a fully reusable spacecraft for deep-space missions to the Moon, future Mars settlements and more again. This Starship project aims to build and fly a spacecraft of 100 people with the help of a huge Super Heavy booster rocket, which would also be reusable.
SpaceX has already hired its first passenger for the Starship spacecraft. Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa has planned a trip around the moon that should not take place until 2023.
Email Tariq Malik at [email protected] or follow him. @tariqjmalik. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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