Musk: SpaceX ‘Starship’ hopper to make test flight 'within weeks'
The flight-test version of SpaceX's Starship vehicle could be ready to take its first short ‘hopping’ excursion in a matter of weeks, company founder and CEO Elon Musk has said in a statement.
"Aiming for four weeks, which probably means eight weeks, due to unforeseen issues," Musk tweeted in January when asked by a follower when the first hopper test would take place.
SpaceX is developing Starship and a giant rocket called the Super Heavy to take people to and from the Moon, Mars and other destinations throughout the Solar System.
The first crewed Red Planet mission for the rocket and 100-passenger Starship could come as early as the mid-2020s if development and testing go well, Musk has said.
This work is taking place at both SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, and the company's test site in
South Texas near the border city of Brownsville. The hopper flights will take off from this latter facility.
When they're up and running both Starship and the Super Heavy will rely on SpaceX's powerful Raptor engine, which is currently in development.
The engines on the Starship test vehicle will be “a blend of Raptor development and operational parts,” Musk explained. The first of these hopper engines will probably be test-fired next month, he added.