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UPDATE: SpaceX successfully launched Starship SN10 and then successfully landed it, the first time the company landed one of the prototype missiles after a high-altitude flight test.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is preparing to launch on Wednesday the latest prototype of its next-generation Starship rocket, in the system’s third high-altitude flight test.
The prototype rocket model Starship Serial Number 10, or SN10, will aim to launch and fly up to 10 kilometers, or about 32,800 feet in altitude. The rocket is made of stainless steel, representing the early versions of the rocket that Musk unveiled in 2019.
SpaceX briefly launched the rocket’s engines for a launch attempt around 3:15 p.m. ET, but a “slightly conservative force limit” caused the rocket to interrupt the test, Musk said in a tweet.
“Raising the power limit and recycling fuel for another flight attempt today,” Musk said.
SpaceX chief integration engineer John Insprucker said on the company’s webcast that he expects to make another launch attempt.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s launch window for the SN10 test runs until 7:30 p.m. ET.
The company is developing Starship in order to launch cargo and people on missions to the Moon and Mars.
The prototype of the Starship SN10 rocket is on the launch pad of the company’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
SpaceX
The flight will be similar to the SpaceX ones performed in December and February, when it tested the SN8 and SN9 prototypes, respectively. Both previous missiles met several development objectives – including testing aerodynamics, stopping successive engines and twisting for landing orientation – but both prototypes exploded on impact as they tried to land, unable to slow down enough.
Like the SN8 and SN9, the purpose of the SN10 flight is not necessarily to reach maximum altitude, but rather to test several key parts of the Starship system. The Starship prototype is about 150 feet high or about the size of a 15-story building and is powered by three Raptor rocket engines. SpaceX will start all three take-off engines and then stop them one by one in order as they approach the peak of the intended flight altitude.
SN10 will aim to transfer fuel from the main tanks to the head tanks and then overturn the “belly” re-entry maneuver in order to control its descent through the air with the four flap flaps. Then, in the last moments of descent, SpaceX will turn the rocket to a vertical orientation and will launch the Raptor engines to slow down for a landing attempt.
While SpaceX has not yet successfully landed a Starship prototype after a high-altitude flight test, the company has landed previous prototypes after short flights at about 500 feet in altitude.
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