SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has shared more information about his company’s plans for a highly anticipated test flight of its Starship launch vehicle platform, according to Wccftech. The test. Elon Musk hopes SpaceX will launch the Starship into orbit by early November at the latest. By then, as SpaceX ramps up production, it will have two prototypes available for testing, at which point it will be the world’s largest rocket.
Elon Musk shared these details in a series of tweets posted earlier today outlining that the earliest orbital launch attempt for the Starship will take place in late October and it could be pushed back to early November. SpaceX is currently testing the prototype booster 7 for the first stage of the Starship, which is the same booster the company tested earlier this week.
This is the largest test of the booster, as SpaceX outlined that it successfully tested seven Raptor 2 engines at the same time. booster 7 has 33 such engines, and live video footage provided by eager onlookers shows the test lasted a few seconds without any surprises.
After the test, SpaceX will continue to upgrade the No. 7 booster. , Elon Musk’s statement suggests that this will be the first booster to make an orbital flight attempt. These upgrades are for “reliability” – they will serve to protect the engines in the event of an accident. These engines are the most valuable component of the rocket, and the risk of losing all of them due to an accident with one engine is too high.
Commenting on the booster upgrade, Elon Musk said.
"Our focus is on reliability upgrades for booster 7 flights and completing booster 9, which has many design changes, particularly the isolation of the full engine RUD."
Our focus is on reliability upgrades for Booster 7 flights and completing Booster 9, which has many design changes, particularly the isolation of the full-engine RUD.
"Maybe later next month, but November seems highly likely. By then, we will have two boosters and the spacecraft ready for orbit, with full-stack production occurring about every two months."
After an aggressive testing campaign last year that saw the successful landing of the upper stage of the Starship after a suborbital flight test, SpaceX has focused its attention on developing booster stages and new engines.
The company has had to make some changes to its booster design so far this year, and it has managed to turn things around unusually quickly after a number of failures, first with a deformed fuel tube and then an explosion at the base of the rocket after an engine test. The latter seems to have prompted the company to accelerate durability upgrades to its boosters, as the original design of the No. 7 booster did not account for these changes, and there were rumors for some time that it might be the lucky booster to get into orbit.
