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SpaceX Fires Up the Engine On Its Test Starship Vehicle For the First Time (theverge.com)
SpaceX successfully ignited the onboard engine of its next-generation spacecraft, the Starship, for the first time today. "The ignition was a test known as a static fire, meant to try out the engine while the vehicle remained tethered to the Earth," reports The Verge. "However, today's test marked the first time this vehicle lit up its engine, and it could pave the way for short 'hop' flights in the near future." From the report: This particular vehicle, referred to as "Starhopper," is meant to test out the technologies and basic design of the final Starship vehicle -- a giant passenger spacecraft that SpaceX is making to take people to the Moon and Mars. The stainless steel Starship is supposed to launch into deep space on top of a massive booster called the Super Heavy, which will be capable of landing back on Earth after takeoff just like SpaceX's current Falcon 9 rocket fleet. And when complete, the Starship/Super Heavy combo should be capable of putting up to 220,000 pounds (100,000 kilograms) into low Earth orbit, according to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, making it one of the most powerful rockets ever made.
SpaceX is currently building the first Starship spacecraft at the company's launch site and test facility in Texas, Musk said on Twitter. But before that vehicle sees space, SpaceX first plans to conduct a few hover flights with the Starhopper. These tests involve igniting the engine (or engines) attached to the bottom of the vehicle. Though these flights won't take the ship to space, they will test out SpaceX's new powerful Raptor engine -- a critical piece of hardware that will be used to power the future Starship and Super Heavy booster. SpaceX fired up a full-scale version of the Raptor engine for the first time in February. And for the last four months, SpaceX has been building the Starhopper at its Boca Chica facility, an area that the company plans to turn into a commercial launch site. Workers transported the vehicle to a test launchpad at the beginning of March and then recently attached a Raptor engine to its bottom.
SpaceX is currently building the first Starship spacecraft at the company's launch site and test facility in Texas, Musk said on Twitter. But before that vehicle sees space, SpaceX first plans to conduct a few hover flights with the Starhopper. These tests involve igniting the engine (or engines) attached to the bottom of the vehicle. Though these flights won't take the ship to space, they will test out SpaceX's new powerful Raptor engine -- a critical piece of hardware that will be used to power the future Starship and Super Heavy booster. SpaceX fired up a full-scale version of the Raptor engine for the first time in February. And for the last four months, SpaceX has been building the Starhopper at its Boca Chica facility, an area that the company plans to turn into a commercial launch site. Workers transported the vehicle to a test launchpad at the beginning of March and then recently attached a Raptor engine to its bottom.
Musk tweeted: "Starhopper completed tethered hop. All systems green." suggesting the results were good.
A decent quality video of the test fire can be seen here. The 'hop' is presumably mere inches, as the tether has essentially no slack.
This is the first known vertical test-fire of the Raptor engine, the first engine firing at the Boca Chica facility, and AFAIK the first time a full-flow rocket engine has been test-fired while attached to a rocket of any sort.
Great progress all around.
Given the orbital hopper is planned to complete construction in June, it's likely the current one will complete its hops by then, suggesting frequent tests rather than the ~40 days inbetween tests of the original Grasshopper.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
When the name was first unveiled and someone pointed out that implied the ability to go to other stars, Musk replied that with some modifications, it could be a real starship.
In practice though, there's no way a bell-nozzle methalox engine is going to be used to get to another star. Nuclear propulsion, or at least an aerospike engine, would be utilized. Or possibly a huge solar sail launched from Mercury. These technologies are close enough to being ready that they'd overtake a craft launched today using existing tech.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
Aerospike is a buzzword: It is a rocket engine, which works at both sea level and vacuum fairly well. It doesn't give you a magic high ISP over a large vacuum engine. Therefore it has nothing to do with interstellar spaceships.
It was seen as a good solution for single stage to orbit (SSTO), which have been a wet dream for rocket science for ages. SpaceX proved that unnecessary for reuse anyway.