After a year 2020 marked by the first test flight of the Starship, SpaceX’s future reusable interstellar spacecraft, Elon Musk plans to increase the tests from the beginning of next year. A first prototype of the Falcon Heavy booster will also be deployed.
SpaceX plans to ramp up its Starship development program in the new year. Speaking on TwitterElon Musk recently pointed out that the company would rely on the two launch platforms at its Boca Chica, Texas facility, with Starship prototypes installed on each. The Super Heavy booster, supposed to propel the Starship into space, will also begin its first tests ”in some months“, He assured.
Everything is accelerating
The next Starship test could come very quickly. We do know that the SN9 prototype was transferred from its hangar to the launch pad on December 24. This vehicle is likely to undergo a more streamlined ground test campaign than the SN8, requiring perhaps only one cryogenic test (loading the tanks with liquid nitrogen), followed by three static shots. If those tests go well and SpaceX gets regulatory approval, the SN9 could complete its test flight before the end of the year or possibly early 2021.
Like its predecessor, the now famous Starship SN8, the SN9 is expected to operate a test flight at 12.5 kilometers altitude. Again, it will be for the ship to return to Earth at an angle of attack of about 70-80 degrees, so that it can purge its speed, and then rely on reaction control thrusters to perform a perform a “belly flop”, so as to return to a vertical position to prepare for landing.
In the meantime, the SN10 has just been fitted with its “nose” and “fins”, while the following prototypes are already in the assembly phase. Thanks to all these machines, and its two launch pads, SpaceX is thus giving itself the chance to multiply the tests before carrying out a first suborbital test at an altitude of 200 km from next year.
The Super Heavy enters the dance
Meanwhile, the announcement of the first upcoming Super Heavy tests is reason to be excited for 2021. As a reminder, this is the booster that SpaceX will use to propel the Starship into space from Earth.
This first prototype of Super Heavy, currently in assembly, could only work with two Raptor engines, but in the long term, this gigantic structure of more than 70 meters high will have no less than 28 of these engines. Enough to offer enough lifting capacity to get out of the earth’s gravity.
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