The launch of Starship draws closer
Spacex’s Starship could blast off from it’s South Texas launch pad sometime next week, according to CEO Elon Musk and documents filed with the Cameron County Court.
The commercial space company plans to send the 17-story-tall, stainless-steel spacecraft to an altitude of 50,000 feet.
“Aiming for first 15km / ~50k ft altitude flight next week. Goals are to test 3 engine ascent, body flaps, transition frommain to header tanks & landing flip,” Musk announced Tuesday on Twitter.
The craft, formally known as the Serial Number8prototype, or SN8, successfully underwent a static fire test — when a rocket’s engines are fired but the vehicle remains on the pad — on Tuesday, he wrote.
Musk hopes the Starship someday will shepherdpeople to the moon, Mars and beyond. The upcoming flight is the most ambitious test of the vertically landing spacecraft to date.
The primary launch window is between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Monday, according to the filing approved by Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. Backuptimesanddates are8a.m. to5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday.
Treviño routinely authorizes Spacex to close Boca Chica Beach and portions of Texas 4 ahead of planned static fires or launches.
Askedviatweetabout thechancesofsn8surviving the upcoming launch, Musk wrote, “Lot of things need to go right, so maybe 1⁄ chance.”
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He added, “But that’s whywe have SN9 & SN10.”
Spacex is building SN9 and additional prototypes at its Boca Chica facility.
SN8 has endured various tests over the past several weeks. A static fire test Nov. 12 damaged one of the craft’s three Raptor engines, Musk noted.
“About 2 secs after starting engines, martyte covering concrete below shattered, sending blades of hardened rock into engine bay,” he said in a Tweet. “One rock blade severed avionics cable, causing bad shutdown of Raptor.”
Martyte is a ceramic epoxy used to protect
surfaces fromextreme heat. After the test, Spacex replaced the engine and adjusted the launch pad.
Raptor engines are built in Hawthorne, Calif., and tested at the company’s facility in Mcgregor, near Waco.
Spacex’s Boca Chica launch site, near South Padre Island and Port Isabel as well as Brownsville, currently employs about 3,000 people, according to Josh Mejia, executive director of the Brownsville Community Improvement Corp.
Musk announced earlier this month that the company will stream video of the launch, “although it might be quite a short livestream! Lot can go wrong, but we’ll provide video, warts & all.
You will see every frame that we do.”
The Federal Aviation Administration’s Notice to Airmen and Temporary Flight Restriction database doesn’t currently show a Spacex request to fly to 15 kilometers at the Boca Chica site, but the company has a blanket approval to operate up to 1,800 feet through Dec. 31.
The FAA’S database is updated frequently, so the request could appear shortly before the launch.
Spacex did not respond to a request for comment.