SpaceX is already gearing up for the subsequent flight of its Starship megarocket, only a week and a half after the latest one left the bottom.
The corporate carried out a long-duration “static fireplace” check with Tremendous Heavy, Starship‘s large first-stage booster, at its Starbase web site in South Texas on Friday (June 6).
All 33 of Tremendous Heavy’s Raptor engines lit up throughout the trial, SpaceX stated in a Friday X post that shared a photograph and two brief movies of the motion.
The check was a part of the preparations for Starship’s subsequent launch, in accordance with the X publish. That flight would be the tenth to this point of a completely stacked Starship — a Tremendous Heavy topped with an higher stage generally known as Starship, or Ship for brief.
Starship Flight 9 lifted off from Starbase simply final week, on Could 27. It was a landmark launch — the primary ever that featured a used Tremendous Heavy. That booster first flew on Flight 7 in January; on that mission, it got here again to Starbase for a dramatic catch by the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms.
There was no such try on Flight 9; SpaceX carried out quite a lot of experiments with Tremendous Heavy on Could 27 and determined to convey it down for a tough splashdown within the Gulf of Mexico for security’s sake.
The booster did not fairly make it, nevertheless, breaking up about 6.5 minutes after launch, simply after starting its touchdown burn.
Ship did not keep collectively on Flight 9, both. The higher stage reached area on a suborbital trajectory however started tumbling about half-hour after liftoff.
Because of this, the automobile could not are available for a comfortable splashdown off the coast of Western Australia as deliberate. SpaceX misplaced contact with Ship about 46 minutes into flight; its items doubtless now relaxation on the Indian Ocean seafloor.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is requiring an investigation into what occurred on Flight 9. Flight 10 can’t carry off till that inquiry is concluded to the company’s satisfaction.