SpaceX successfully tested the engines of the next prototype of the Starship super-heavy rocket
It became known that the American company SpaceX has conducted the first static fire tests of a new prototype space super-heavy rocket Starship, which has the code name SN9. Information about this was published by the web resource space.com.
During the tests, which took place at the SpaceX launch site in South Texas, all three engines were turned on for about one second, after which their work was stopped. The prototype itself did not detach from the launch pad during engine start-up and remained in a static state. It looks like SpaceX is approaching the point where the SN9 will be ready for flight tests, in which the previous SN8 prototype participated last month.
Recall that on December 9 last year, SpaceX conducted flight tests of a Starship SN8 prototype equipped with three Raptor engines. During the tests, the rocket successfully climbed to an altitude of 12.5 km, but in the process of an unsuccessful landing, it was destroyed by an explosion. The three previous prototypes also successfully took off, but they were equipped with only one engine and did not take off higher than 150 meters.
SpaceX is developing a super-heavy rocket and manned spacecraft Starship for missions to deliver people and payloads to low-earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and other distant places. The ship itself and the launch vehicle that will be used to launch it into space are reusable. Earlier, the head of SpaceX, Elon Musk, said that the first Starship test flight into low-earth orbit could take place in 2021.
