One of the most anticipated SpaceX events finally took place, after weeks of waiting and numerous notices for the residents of Boca Chica Village, a location that rests near the test site. Elon Musk took to Twitter to confirm that the ‘hopper’ version of the Starship successfully completed a ‘tethered hop’
While the vehicle was grounded, the test on Wednesday evening did mark the first time it lit up its engine.
The hopper prototypes are the versions that pack up less power than their larger siblings. They don’t travel as far either – in this case, the ‘tethered hop’ Musk mentioned is basically a static test. These ‘hoppers’ have been often used by SpaceX to test rockets in the past.
The vehicle, affectionately nicknamed ‘Starhopper’, is the guinea pig for what will become the final design of the Starship, a passenger aircraft SpaceX plans to use to take people to the Moon and Mars.
Before it will ever even tip its cone into space though, the spacecraft still has to go through a long series of rigorous tests that include igniting the engines attached to the bottom and testing out the new SpaceX Raptor. The Raptor engine is, arguably, the most pivotal piece of hardware on the vehicle as it will be the one responsible of powering up both the Starship and the Super Heavy booster.
The Raptor engine has been tested by itself back in February and currently, the Starhopper only features one, which will not take the spacecraft very high. Even during the firing that took place on Wednesday evening, the vehicle most likely would have lifted off just a few inches from the ground if it hadn’t been tethered.
Eventually, SpaceX will place three Raptor engines on the spacecraft, which should allow it to fly up to low altitudes before returning back to the ground.
For the time being, it’s unknown how many tests the spacecraft needs to go through until it’s considered space-worthy but it’s expected that the very first flight will happen as early as 2020. At least, that is according to Elon Musk, who is notorious for his optimism even in the face of projects that don’t look promising.
SpaceX is currently working on receiving regulatory approvals to fly from Boca Chica and Cape Canaveral, where the company is building both the Starship and the Super Heavy.
The fact remains that SpaceX needs to get Starship mission-ready in less than four years but, considering everything has been going well so far, we might see the spacecraft head to the skies even earlier than that.
Follow TechTheLead on Google News to get the news first.
