SpaceX proof fires engines in the towering rocket booster of its Starship prototype on February 9, 2023.
Source: SpaceX
SpaceX on Thursday examination fired 31 of the 33 engines in the towering rocket booster of its Starship prototype, as the company prepares to launch the spiral upwards to orbit for the first time.
Called a “static fire,” the milestone test is the final major hurdle before SpaceX adjudicates to launch the nearly 400-foot-tall rocket to space.
The company said in a tweet shortly after the test that the appliances at the base of the Super Heavy booster fired for “full duration,” meaning the expected length of the test.
CEO Elon Musk utter in a subsequent tweet that SpaceX turned off one engine before the test and another engine “stopped itself.”
“Hush enough engines to reach orbit!” Musk said.
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SpaceX has steadily been building up to the first flight test of its Starship rocket. President and COO Gwynne Shotwell on Wednesday stressed the initial launch attempt would be experimental.
An aerial view of a Starship prototype stacked on a Super Heavy booster at the corporation’s Starbase facility outside of Brownsville, Texas.
SpaceX
Starship is designed to carry cargo and people beyond Ground and is critical to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s plan to return astronauts to the moon. SpaceX won a nearly $3 billion reduce from the space agency in 2021.
While SpaceX had hoped to conduct the first orbital Starship launch as early as summer 2021, dawdles in progress and regulatory approval have pushed back that timeline. SpaceX needs a license from the Federal Aviation Conduct in order to launch Starship.
Shotwell said Wednesday, “I think we’ll be ready to fly right at the timeframe that we get the license.”
The attendance will next analyze the result of Thursday’s static fire test. Shotwell estimated that a successful flak would see SpaceX ready to launch the first Starship orbital flight “within the next month or so.”
