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The last SpaceX Starship the prototype can now be cleared for take-off.
the Starship SN9 vehicle conducted its fifth static fire test on Friday morning (January 22), briefly firing its three Raptor engines at 9:59 a.m. EST (2:59 p.m. GMT) while remaining firmly on the ground at SpaceX’s facilities in South Texas, near from the village of Boca Chica on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. .
Static fires are common pre-flight checks for SpaceX rockets, and SN9 may now have ticked enough boxes to embark on a high-altitude test mission in the next few days – possibly as early as Monday (January 25).
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STATIC FIRE! Starship SN9 shoots its three Raptors. Very gentle morning flow on ignition. Looks and sounded great. Hopefully the data was good to approve the launch next week SN9 Status: https: //t.co/Q0QbkThFh6➡️https: //t.co/KLFof9P5Ts pic.twitter.com/fs7KK78WYbJanuary 22, 2021
SN9’s flight is expected to resemble that of its predecessor, the SN8 three-engined vehicle, which climbed about 12.5 kilometers. over Boca Chica on December 9. SN8 did everything that was asked of it that day except glue the landing; the stainless steel craft descended a bit too quickly and exploded when it struck its designated landing zone.
SpaceX is developing Starship to transport people and goods to the Moon, Mars, and other cosmic destinations. The transport system consists of two parts, both of which will be fully and quickly reusable: the 165-foot-tall (50-meter) Starship spacecraft and a massive booster known as the Super Heavy.
Both will be powered by the next-gen Raptor. The final version of Starship will have six Raptors, and Super Heavy will sport around 30 of SpaceX’s engines, founder and CEO Elon musk said. (Super Heavy will be required to launch Starship out of Earth, but the spacecraft will be able to withdraw from both the Moon and Mars.)
SpaceX is moving fast with Starship, as it tends to do with its projects. Musk said he expected Starship to start transporting people to Mars by 2026, and that this epic milestone could even happen in 2024 “if we are lucky. “(Missions to Mars operate on cycles of about two years; Earth and Mars align properly for interplanetary missions every 26 months.)
SN9 previously performed one static fire on January 6 and three in quick succession on January 13. After testing on January 13, SpaceX exchanged two of the three engines of the vehicle, which Musk said needed minor repairs.
The prototype also appeared to attempt a static fire on Thursday (January 21), but that test was so brief it appears to have been cut short.
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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