Starship SN8 slated to fly 50,000 feet in Boca Chica

BOCA CHICA, Texas – The remote village of Boca Chica is a place that nature has called her home. However, nature shares its home with a spaceship and a rocket construction facility, SpaceX’s Starship facility.

Starship is the two-stage spacecraft and rocket system that Elon Musk hopes will eventually take humans to Mars. A prototype spacecraft, serial number 8 (SN8), is expected to fly nearly 50,000 feet this week – which would be the most distant flight of any prototype spacecraft.

“Can’t wait to see this,” Ray Wysocki, a SpaceX Starship fan who drove his Tesla from Philadelphia.

The spacecraft is the spacecraft that Elon Musk hopes will eventually take 100 people to Mars. Boca Chica has a rapidly developing private spaceport where the Starship spacecraft will be launched. The two-stage vehicle system, also known as the Starship, includes the Starship spacecraft that would eventually be launched on top of a SpaceX Super Heavy Rocket, which has yet to be developed.

For now, SpaceX is working on the Starship spacecraft and is currently performing and quickly testing various iterations of the spacecraft. The ship’s serial number prototype (SN5) completed a long-awaited 500-foot “jump” in August. SN6 replicated this jump the following month. Now all eyes are on the SN8, which is currently mounted on the launch pad at the Boca Chica plant.

The SN8, made of 304L steel, is the first prototype spacecraft to fly fully equipped with a nose and flaps. It would also be the first prototype to be launched by firing all three Raptor engines.

Elon Musk tweeted on Monday that SpaceX would do a static fire test before attempting the launch. The launch would take place no earlier than Wednesday, according to Musk.

“It’s about taking people away from the planet, making humans multi-planetary – having a future for humanity,” Wysocki said.