SpaceX Starhopper rocket prototype blasts to new heights in dramatic test flight
The entire test flight lasted... 57 seconds
SpaceX's Starhopper rocket prototype completed another test flight on Tuesday in a dramatic demonstration of technology that clears another key hurdle in Elon Musk's interplanetary ambitions.
The test vehicle rose about 152 metres over the Texas coast and moved sideways before slowly descending to make a soft landing on a nearby landing platform.
"Congrats SpaceX team!!" SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted after successful completion of the test.
SpaceX livestreamed the entire test flight, which lasted for 57 seconds.
Starhopper's test had been planned for Monday, but a technical glitch at the last moment forced SpaceX scientists to put back the test until the next day. Musk later revealed that a wiring or connector issue with the igniters caused the delay on Monday.
On Tuesday, the Starhopper slowly rose about 152 metres off the launch pad in Brownsville, Texas, and then propelled itself about 198 metres eastward onto another landing platform.
"It almost looked like a cartoon or something," Cheryl Stevens, a resident of Boca Chica village, told Reuters just after Starhopper's flight.
"After all the buildup, it was kind of nice to actually see it happen."
All families in Boca Chica village, which is located about a mile from the test site, were urged by authorities in advance to vacate their homes as a precautionary measure.
Starhopper, which looks like a flying water tower, is the first test prototype for a spacecraft (Starship) that Musk plans to create to send people to Moon and Mars in the next decade.
The sub-scale Starship "hopper" spacecraft is powered by a single methane-fuelled Raptor, the next-gen engine that SpaceX is developing for use on larger, 100-passenger winged Starship vehicle and its giant partner, Super Heavy Rocket.
According to Musk, the Starship will sport six Raptors, while the Super Heavy will have 35 engines. The numbers could change, however, in future.
Musk had also promised earlier to give a Starship design update after Starhopper's final flight.
Starhopper's test flight on Tuesday was its second "untethered" test. It was also the final flight of this particular prototype, which will now be converted into a test stand for Starship's Raptor engines.
In its previous test flight on 25th July, the prototype performed a brief hover at a height of 20 metres.
The first test flight of the prototype, which was conducted in April, had barely produced any separation between the prototype and the ground.