SpaceX fires up Starship SN20 prototype in key 6-engine test (video)
[ad_1]
SpaceX continues to prep its latest Starship prototype for a landmark orbital test flight.
The Starship SN20 vehicle ignited all six of its Raptor engines in a brief “static fire” test today (Nov. 12) at Starbase, SpaceX’s facility near the South Texas village of Boca Chica.
“Good static fire with all six engines!” SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk tweeted shortly after the test, which took place at 1:13 p.m. EST (1813 GMT; 12:13 p.m. local Texas time) and was webcast by NASASpaceflight.comand SPadre.com.
Photos: SpaceX lifts huge Super Heavy rocket onto launch stand
SpaceX is developing Starship to take people and cargo the moon, Mars and other distant destinations. The system consists of two fully reusable elements: a giant first-stage booster called Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall (50 meters) spacecraft known as Starship.
SpaceX has launched Starship prototypes before, sending a handful of three-engine vehicles to a maximum altitude of about 6 miles (10 kilometers). But SN20 will make a much bigger leap: It’s being groomed to launch atop a Super Heavy on the first-ever Starship orbital test flight, which SpaceX aims to launch in the coming weeks or months.
The timing of that liftoff is unclear, partly because the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is still conducting an environmental assessment of the Starbase orbital launch site. The FAA has filed a draft assessment and collected public comments on the document, but the final report has not yet been released.
Today’s test wasn’t the first static fire — a trial in which rocket engines are briefly engaged while the vehicle remains anchored to the ground — for SN20. SpaceX performed back-to-back static fires with the vehicle on Oct. 21, but SN20 had just two Raptors installed at that point. Today’s test involved the flight configuration of six engines — three standard “sea level” Raptors and three optimized to perform in the vacuum of space.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or on Facebook.
[ad_2]
Original Post
whoah this blog is excellent i love reading your articles. Keep up the good work! You know, lots of people are searching around for this info, you could aid them greatly.
you have a great blog here! would you like to make some invite posts on my blog?
Definitely, what a fantastic website and informative posts, I surely will bookmark your site.All the Best!
I’ve been exploring for a bit for any high-quality articles or weblog posts in this sort of area . Exploring in Yahoo I at last stumbled upon this site. Studying this info So i am happy to exhibit that I’ve a very excellent uncanny feeling I found out exactly what I needed. I such a lot no doubt will make sure to do not put out of your mind this web site and give it a look regularly.
I have recently started a site, the info you provide on this website has helped me tremendously. Thank you for all of your time & work. “Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.” by George Jean Nathan.
Having read this I thought it was very informative. I appreciate you taking the time and effort to put this article together. I once again find myself spending way to much time both reading and commenting. But so what, it was still worth it!
Some really good blog posts on this site, appreciate it for contribution. “When he has ceased to hear the many, he may discern the One – the inner sound which kills the outer.” by H Hahn Blavatsky.
This is the right weblog for anybody who needs to seek out out about this topic. You notice so much its nearly arduous to argue with you (not that I really would need…HaHa). You definitely put a new spin on a topic thats been written about for years. Nice stuff, simply great!
Hmm is anyone else encountering problems with the images on this blog loading? I’m trying to determine if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog. Any feed-back would be greatly appreciated.
Great wordpress blog here.. It’s hard to find quality writing like yours these days. I really appreciate people like you! take care
There is noticeably a bundle to know about this. I assume you made certain nice points in features also.
Thank you for the good writeup. It in fact was a amusement account it. Look advanced to far added agreeable from you! By the way, how can we communicate?
I don’t even understand how I ended up here, however I believed this post was good. I don’t understand who you might be but definitely you’re going to a well-known blogger if you happen to aren’t already 😉 Cheers!
My husband and i were now fulfilled John managed to conclude his investigations out of the precious recommendations he grabbed from your site. It is now and again perplexing to simply possibly be handing out guidelines which often the rest may have been trying to sell. And we figure out we now have the website owner to give thanks to because of that. The type of explanations you made, the simple web site navigation, the friendships you can assist to foster – it’s mostly exceptional, and it’s assisting our son and our family recognize that this issue is excellent, and that is unbelievably mandatory. Many thanks for the whole lot!
This web site is my inspiration , very fantastic layout and perfect subject material.
Great write-up, I am regular visitor of one¦s website, maintain up the nice operate, and It is going to be a regular visitor for a long time.