SpaceX has just fired up the engines of its Starship spacecraft in preparation for the ninth test flight of the most powerful rocket ever to get off the ground.
The spaceflight company shared a 60-second clip (below) of the spacecraft’s six Raptor engines blasting at full power during a static test at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, on Tuesday. It also included three images captured during the test.
Starship completed a long duration six-engine static fire and is undergoing final preparations for the ninth flight test pic.twitter.com/o3WWjwtFre
SpaceX has yet to announce a date for the ninth flight of the Starship rocket, which comprises the first-stage Super Heavy booster and the upper-stage Starship spacecraft. However, Tuesday’s testing of the spacecraft engines suggests that the flight could take place before the end of this month.
The upcoming flight will see the first reuse of a Super Heavy booster, which will help SpaceX save on mission costs as it aims to ramp up Starship flights to as many as one every two weeks as the year progresses. To enable reuse, SpaceX has developed a system that uses large mechanical arms on the launch tower to secure the first-stage booster as it returns to Earth minutes after deploying the spacecraft to orbit.
During the test, the plan is for the Super Heavy to deploy the Starship to orbit. After a short flight, the spacecraft will make a controlled landing in the Indian Ocean — using those Raptor engines.
NASA wants to use the Starship rocket for crew and cargo flights to the moon as part of its Artemis program. First up, it plans to use a modified version of the spacecraft to put two astronauts on the lunar surface in the Artemis III mission, currently set for 2027. The endeavor will mark NASA’s first crewed lunar landing since 1972.
Looking further ahead, SpaceX chief Elon Musk is keen to use the Starship for the first-ever crewed mission to Mars, which could take place in the 2030s.
But before then, the Super Heavy and Starship need to undergo more testing and refinement.
While the Starship’s performance is clearly improving when compared to its first couple of flights in 2023, SpaceX has some real concerns after losing the Starship spacecraft in the seventh and eighth tests due to technical issues.
With the clock ticking, the pressure is on SpaceX to make the ninth flight its most successful yet.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.