After successful testing of its SN5 starship in early August, SpaceX is now preparing to do a second hop test on another prototype, the SN6, as reported by NASASpaceFlight.
On August 5, SpaceX put its SN5 prototype through its paces with a hop test in which the rocket fired a single raptor engine and stood up 150 meters on the ground before returning back to Earth. This was the third attempt to test and with this success, the company is set to proceed to perform similar testing on its other new prototypes.
The SN6 is reportedly already assembled and ready for testing, so the company swapped the SN5 at its facility in Boca Chica, and from the comments of people in the area it appears that as early as next week Only it can be fulfilled.
The starship SN6 began its test campaign (cryo static fire) earlier than expected by 150 meters. The footage includes scenes around the SpaceX Boca Chica / Drive previous tour.
Videos and pictures from Mary (@BocaChicaGal). Edited by Brady Caniston (@TheFavoritist).
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& Mdash; Chris B – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) August 16, 2020
NASASpaceFlight has also made video available from Boca Chica, showing footage around test areas and exposing some locations that will be used in testing, such as cryo pressure testing, to simulate space temperatures The craft systems are filled with cold liquid nitrogen. , And static fire test in which engines are fired at full thrust for a few seconds.
Starships have been produced and tested on an ambitious scale, with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk clarifying his wishes to produce hundreds of starships and eventually use humans to take him to Mars. With such a daunting challenge, there have been a lot of difficulties along the way, ranging from detonating the prototype to literally flying the top of the prototype during testing. But with the progress on testing of the SN5 prototype, it seems that things may be somewhat smooth for the SN6.
SpaceX is not currently working on its new heavy rocket. The company is continuing to roll out its Starlink satellites, hundreds of satellites that will form a network and eventually provide global Internet access. Oysters Confirmed on twitter The next Starlink launch will take place tomorrow, Tuesday August 18, marking the 100th launch for SpaceX and the sixth time this particular Falcon 9 rocket booster has been used.
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