SpaceX fires up Starship prototype again ahead of test flight (video) - Space.com

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SpaceX's Ship 24 Starship prototype lights 1 its six Raptor engines during a little static occurrence trial connected Dec. 15, 2022 successful this overhead view. (Image credit: SpaceX via Twitter)

SpaceX continues to cogwheel up for the first-ever orbital trial formation of its Starship Mars rocket.

SpaceX performed different "static fire" trial contiguous (Dec. 15) astatine its South Texas facility, lighting up Ship 24, a prototype of Starship's 165-foot-tall (50 meters) upper-stage spacecraft.

One of Ship 24's six Raptor engines ignited astatine 2:01 p.m. EST (1901 GMT; 1:01 p.m. section Texas time), firing for astir 7 seconds portion the conveyance remained anchored to the ground. The little trial was captured connected video by NASASpaceFlight (opens successful caller tab) and Rocket Ranch Boca Chica (opens successful caller tab).

Ship 24 completes a single-engine static occurrence trial astatine Starbase successful Texas pic.twitter.com/gF9beLcarXDecember 15, 2022

Ship 24 volition alert connected the Starship program's archetypal orbital trial flight, which SpaceX laminitis and CEO Elon Musk has said could assistance disconnected successful the adjacent fewer months. The prototype has already been done a static-fire gamut; it lit up each six of its Raptors successful September, for example.

Ship 24 volition assistance disconnected atop Booster 7, a prototype of Starship's monolithic Super Heavy archetypal stage. SpaceX has been putting Booster 7 done its paces arsenic well. On Nov. 29, for instance, the elephantine rocket lit up 11 of its 33 Raptors. Fifteen days earlier that, the booster performed a 14-engine static fire.

SpaceX is processing the afloat reusable Starship to instrumentality radical and cargo to the satellite and Mars, and to alert a assortment of different missions person to home. For example, SpaceX plans to motorboat the bulk of its next-generation Starlink net satellites utilizing Starship, Musk has said.

SpaceX has already lined up immoderate customers for Starship lunar flights. NASA picked the conveyance to beryllium the archetypal crewed lander for its Artemis satellite program, and Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa booked a Starship ngo astir the satellite that volition transportation a fistful of artists and influencers, including "Everyday Astronaut" Tim Dodd.

Mike Wall is the writer of "Out There (opens successful caller tab)" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a publication astir the hunt for alien life. Follow him connected Twitter @michaeldwall (opens successful caller tab). Follow america connected Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens successful caller tab) or on Facebook (opens successful caller tab).

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Michael Wall is simply a Senior Space Writer with Space.com (opens successful caller tab) and joined the squad successful 2010. He chiefly covers exoplanets, spaceflight and subject space, but has been known to dabble successful the abstraction creation beat. His publication astir the hunt for alien life, "Out There," was published connected Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a subject writer, Michael worked arsenic a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. successful evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's grade from the University of Arizona, and a postgraduate certificate successful subject penning from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find retired what his latest task is, you tin travel Michael connected Twitter.

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