SpaceX's Starhopper is getting closer to its first flight

SpaceX hopes to soon launch its Starhopper test vehicle in the air during its first flights. The short-term tests, which will take place off the SpaceX launch site in Boca Chica, Texas, will bring the rocket to a little less than 1,640 feet (500 meters) in height for its low-altitude flights and up to 40,000 feet. at 16,000 feet (5,000 meters) high at high altitude, according to an amended application filed with the Federal Communications Commission. The heights correspond to those indicated by the company in a similar deposit last year.

Starhopper is a very basic version of Starship, the huge passenger rocket that SpaceX wants to build to send people to the Moon and Mars. In preparation for the first space flight of the first spacecraft, SpaceX tinkered the Starhopper test to Boca Chica. The vehicle has a structure similar to that of the last rocket, although it is slightly smaller. The most important task of Starhopper is to test the new and powerful Raptor engines developed by SpaceX for the future deep space rocket.

SpaceX launched a Raptor engine at the bottom of the Starhopper for the first time in April. He only got up a few inches since the vehicle was tied to the ground. But now, SpaceX plans to do so-called "hop" tests with the vehicle (hence the nickname Starhopper), which will send the rocket low over the Earth. The company will then attempt to land the Starhopper on the ground with the three landing arms of the vehicle. The idea is to test the landing capabilities that the rocket will use to land on Earth and other worlds. SpaceX performed similar tests with a vehicle called Grasshopper in 2012 and 2013 to test the landing technique used by its Falcon 9 rockets.

Only one Raptor engine was connected to the Starhopper tests, but SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that eventually three engines would be added to the vehicle for higher flights. For now, the images of the vehicle show that the Boca Chica Starhopper do not have all attached motors. This will change as the company prepares for the inaugural flights.

Cameron County, where Boca Chica is located, closed the roads around the launch site on May 28, indicating that the flights could take place as early as a week. However, the first series of SpaceX tests took place several weeks after the publication of the first series of road closures. It is therefore possible that the first jumping trials will take place in a few weeks.