SpaceX has moved its latest Starship spacecraft to the launch pad for testing forward of the megarocket’s upcoming eleventh check flight.
The corporate documented the milestone at present (Sept. 17) by way of X, in a submit that shared three photographs of the shiny silver Starship higher stage.
In a kind of pictures, the 171-foot-tall (52-meter-tall) spacecraft — often called Starship, or simply “Ship” — is rolling down a highway at SpaceX’s Starbase website in South Texas at nighttime. Within the different two, Ship is on the pad, nestled within the grasp of the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms.
The doubtless subsequent steps are pressurization and engine exams, which is able to guarantee Ship is able to fly. The identical prep work may even be finished with Tremendous Heavy, the massive booster that makes up the underside half of the absolutely reusable, stainless-steel Starship.
The upcoming check flight, whose goal date has not but been introduced, would be the eleventh for Starship.
It was a welcome bounceback for SpaceX, which had misplaced Ship prematurely on the earlier three check launches.
Flight 11 would be the ultimate mission of Starship Model 2, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has stated. The corporate will then shift to testing Model 3 of the automobile, which is able to stand about 408 toes (124.4 meters) tall — roughly 10 toes (3 m) taller than Model 2.
If Model 3 testing and improvement go nicely, a small, uncrewed fleet of those automobiles might launch towards Mars as early as subsequent 12 months, in keeping with Musk. That will be an enormous step towards reaching his, and SpaceX’s, chief long-term aim — serving to humanity settle the Crimson Planet.
