The next rocket in SpaceX’s Starship interplanetary ship program has taken a step forward for flight, with a brief firing of the rocket’s 33 Raptor first stage engines. The ‘static fire’ test of the so-called ‘Booster 9’ occurred on the new launch pad built at Space X’s Starbase on the South Texas coast.

Not all engines worked perfectly; four of them shut down prematurely, SpaceX representatives said during a webcast of the test on August 6, Space.com reports. But the rest worked, and both Booster 9 and the launchpad came out of the test intact.

Starship, SpaceX’s next-generation transportation system, which is designed to take people and cargo to the moon, Mars and beyond, has a full flight test under its belt. That mission was launched from Starbase on April 20, with the goal of sending the prototype ship called Ship 24 around Earth; the splashdown was aimed at the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii. However, that did not happen; Starship experienced several problems shortly after liftoff, and SpaceX sent a self-destruct command, destroying the vehicle over the Gulf of Mexico.

The April 20 launch also caused considerable damage to Starbase’s orbital launch pad and some surrounding infrastructure. To prevent that from happening again, SpaceX installed an undermount water deluge system: a water-spouting steel plate designed to dampen the tremendous energy generated by the 33 Raptors of the Super Heavy rocket that powers the ship.

The new deluge system seemed to work well during testing on August 6, as large amounts of water shot toward the burning Raptors. The upcoming flight test will include Booster 9 and an upper stage prototype called Ship 25. It will have similar goals to the first liftoff, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said.

It is unclear when that launch will take place, however, as technical issues aren’t the only hurdles SpaceX must overcome. For example, a coalition of environmental and indigenous groups is currently suing the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which licensed Starship launches from Starbase. The lawsuit claims the agency failed to adequately assess the damage such liftoffs could cause to the South Texas ecosystem, and calls for a more stringent environmental review before more Starships lift off from the site.

Source: dpa

(Reference image source: SpaceX, Europa Press / dpa)

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SpaceX will launch the first Starship into orbit in January 2022. According to Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO, the first flight of the Starship system should be implemented in early 2022.

The company is targeting January or February, Musk said during an online meeting of the Board for Space Studies and the Board of Physics and Astronomy of the US National Academies.

This initial historical leap will ideally be followed by more shortly thereafter. Starship could go through “a dozen launches next year, maybe more,” and be ready to send valuable payloads to the Moon, Mars and even the outer planets of the solar system by 2023, he added.

Musk advised against sending something too valuable on the first flight to Mars. “I would recommend putting the lower-cost science mission stuff on the first mission,” he commented, quoted by Universe Today.

SpaceX to conquer space

Starship consists of two elements: a spaceship called the Starship and a giant first-stage booster known as the Super Heavy. Both will be fully reusable and both will be powered by Raptors: six for the final Starship and 29 for Super Heavy.

Intended for the first orbital trial, the SN20 prototype will eventually have six Raptors: three standard and three vacuum. SpaceX is preparing the vehicle for the long-awaited orbital flight test, a first for the Starship program. Prototypes have been launched before, but those were three-engine vehicles (at most) that reached a maximum altitude of approximately 10 kilometers.

SN20 and a Super Heavy known as Booster 4 will launch from the Starbase in Texas. The thruster will make an ocean splash in the Gulf of Mexico, about 20 miles from the launch site. But SN20 will make it all the way to orbit, if all goes according to plan, eventually landing on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

Source: dpa

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