SpaceX’s Starhopper prototype will lift off for its first untethered hover test NEXT WEEK when it will attempt to rise 20 meters and shift its direction before touching back down
- SpaceX will test its Starhopper craft in a hover test next week
- The ship will float 20 meters off the ground and 20 meters sideways
- This is the first untethered test of the craft which aims to bring people to Mars
- A test coincides with the 50th anniversary of NASA’s Apollo 11 mission
SpaceX’s Starhopper is gearing up for a major test next week that will see the ship hover briefly off the ground.
The test was announced on Twitter by the aerospace company’s CEO, Elon Musk, who tweeted simply, ‘Raptor engine mounted on Starhopper. Aiming for hover test Tuesday.’
Unlike previous tests, the giant ship won’t be tethered to the ground but instead will attempt to rise 20 meters — as well as 20 meters sideways — into the air and then safely nestle back down onto the launch pad.
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Musk said SpaceX is aiming for a critical test of its Starhopper craft next week. It will be the first untethered test of the system
The test will be the first-ever untethered hover of the space craft and will launch the ship 20 meters off the ground. The prototype can be seen at the Boca Chia site earlier this year
Two other tests from the company lifted Starhopper just inches of the launch pad.
According to Musk, the Raptor enginers used to lift the craft off the ground are ‘dangerously chuggy’ when fired under 40 percent, so the rockets will be fired at 50 percent power.
It’s worth noting that the scheduled date for SpaceX’s test — Tuesday July 16 — is also the 50th anniversary of NASA’s Apollo 11 launch which landed humans on the lunar surface for the first time in history.
Starhopper is the test vehicle for SpaceX’s ultimate goal of developing a sleeker craft called the Starship which Musk hopes will eventually take human passengers on a number of missions into space.
Among them, Musk hopes that the Starship, previously known as BFR, Big Falcon Rocket, or the Big F***ing Rocket, will be central to the first crewed mission to Mars.
Musk hopes that eventually, Starhopper will pave the way for a craft called Starship (rendered above) meant to bring humans to Mars.
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
Missions may even include tourists trips to the moon by 2024, according to the CEO. Completing a successful mission to the moon would mark an incremental step in Musk’s other vision of traveling to Mars.
Given the upcoming test is successful, Musk says the Starhopper will look to increase its vertical range, performing an tethered hover about 20 miles off the ground. That phase could be tested in the coming months according to him.
SpaceX recently completed one of its most impressive tests to date, launching its Falcon Heavy rocket — a reusable rocket that the company hopes will one day launch and land safely — into space to deliver military satellites.
The ship missed its landing after returning from space, but using a large boat equipped with a net, the company was able to successfully catch one of two rocket fairings in an unprecedented feat.
Most rocket parts are lost forever following their launch, either burning up, crashing, or falling into the ocean and never retrieved, making SpaceX’s reusable rockets a novel approach to space exploration.