starship hopper Archives

August 5, 2020August 5, 2020 by Matt Williams

Finally! SpaceX Starship Prototype SN5 Flies Just Over 150 Meters Into the Air

Yesterday (on Tuesday, August 4th), ground crews at the SpaceX launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas, accomplished a major milestone. After 11 months of prototyping, testing, and more than a few explosions, the fifth Starship prototype (SN5) successfully completed a 150 meter (~500 ft) hop test and landed safely again. This latest test puts SpaceX on track towards full-scale orbital testing of their future launch vehicle.

July 13, 2020July 13, 2020 by Matt Williams

Will We See a Starship Test This Week?

As we speak, engineers at SpaceX’s Boca Chica test facility are busy getting the fifth Starship prototype (SN5) ready. Having recently passed the crucial cryogenic load test, and with the installation of its SN27 Raptor engine, the ground crews are now gearing up for a static fire test. Assuming the SN5 doesn’t explode in a massive fireball (as the SN4 did), it will be ready to make the first hop test of a full-scale Starship prototype.

April 27, 2020April 27, 2020 by Matt Williams

Now This is Progress! Starship Passes its Cryogenic Test and Doesn’t Explode

This weekend, SpaceX’s fourth Starship prototype (SN4) achieved a major milestone by passing the crucial cryogenic load test. This consisted of the prototype’s liquid oxygen and liquid methane tanks being filled with liquid nitrogen to see how they hold up when fully-pressurized. This test was vital since the three previous prototypes suffered structural failures and were lost during this exact same procedure.

September 23, 2019September 23, 2019 by Matt Williams

SpaceX Starship Gets Some Fins

Earlier today, Elon Musk posted another update via Twitter on the progress of the Starship prototype. Images taken from the company’s South Texas Launch Site near the town of Boca Chica show the Starship Mk.1 being equipped with two new tail fins. According to the usual Q&A that accompanied one of Musk’s post, these fins are intended to stabilize the Mk.1 during takeoff and landing.

September 2, 2019September 3, 2019 by Matt Williams

Elon Musks Says that his Next Starship Could be Twice as Big

The past week has been pretty eventful for SpaceX. On Tuesday (Aug. 27th) at 05:00 PM local time (03:00 PST; 06:00 EST), the company conducted its second free-flight test of the Starship Hopper, which saw the test vehicle successfully ascend to 150 m (~500 ft) above the ground and then land in a different spot. This test brings SpaceX one step closer to orbital tests with their full-scale prototypes of the Starship.

But it was what came shortly after this successful test that has people buzzing right now. On Twitter, as Musk was sharing drone footage of the test, he mused about how big SpaceX’s next super-heavy launch system would be. According to Musk, the next-generation system (Starship 2.0, if you will) will be twice as large as the vehicle that is poised to send humans and cargo to the Moon and to Mars.

August 28, 2019August 28, 2019 by Matt Williams

SpaceX Starship Hopper Prototype Makes its Highest Hop Test So Far!

Yesterday (Tuesday, Aug. 26th), SpaceX conducted the second untethered test of its Starship Hopper – and nailed it! For this test, the prototype test vehicle took off from the Boca Chica test facility, ascended to an altitude of 150 m (~500 ft) and then landed again safely. This comes just a month after the first successful hop test and brings the company one step closer to tests using their full-scale prototype.

July 20, 2019July 20, 2019 by Matt Williams

Starship Prototype Catches Fire After a Recent Test, But Appears Undamaged

The year of 2019 has not been very kind to SpaceX so far. Back in April, the company lost one of its new Crew Dragon capsules when an explosion occurred during a static firing test of their In-Flight Abort test vehicle. Earlier this week, the company revealed that they had determined the cause of the explosion, saying that it was due to a nitrogen tetroxide leak that occurred just prior to the final test.

And now, just a few days later, another accident has occurred, this time involving the Starhopper test vehicle. Once again, a fire occurred shortly after the vehicle conducted an engine test; fortunately, it resulted in no injuries. However, the Starhopper appears to have come through the fire completely unscathed, though it might cause a slight delay with the vehicle’s scheduled hop tests.

April 4, 2019April 5, 2019 by Matt Williams

The Starhops Have Begun!

SpaceX's first detailed render of the Starship reentering Earth's atmosphere. Credit: SpaceX

According to Elon Musk, SpaceX’s Starship Hopper just completed its inaugural hop test at the company’s South Texas Launch Site. As the first of many, this test is intended to validate the sophisticated Raptor engines that will be used aboard the full-scale Starship spacecraft, which is intrinsic to Musks’ long-term vision of providing intercontinental flights and making commercial trips to the Moon and Mars.

April 3, 2019April 3, 2019 by Matt Williams

Starhopper Tests Have Gotten Delayed Because of “Ice Formation in the Cryogenic Propellant Prevalves”

SpaceX is continuing with the development of their Starship Hopper, a miniature, stainless steel version of its proposed super-heavy lift vehicle known as the Starship. Most recently, test were conducted on the revolutionary heat shield that will protect the Hopper once it reenters Earth’s atmosphere, and a new rendering was released that showed the final version entering the atmospheres of Earth and Mars.

Another recent development has to do with the first scheduled test of the miniature Starship, which began in earnest last week. Unfortunately, there has been a bit of a delay due to some technical issues with the cryogenic fuel tanks. As usual, Musk made the announcement via twitter in response to questions about when the much-anticipated flight test will happen, which has been delayed multiple times now.

March 28, 2019March 28, 2019 by Matt Williams

SpaceX Releases a New Render of What the All-Steel Starship Will Look Like Returning to Earth

The design for SpaceX’s Starship (aka. Big Falcon Rocket) is really starting to come together! Over the holidays, sections of the Starship Hopper (a miniature version of the Starship) were photographed being put together at the company’s South Texas Launch Site. By mid-January, the parts were fully-integrated, forming the body of the stainless-steel prototype that would test the spacecraft’s overall architecture.

What followed, earlier this month, were tests of the Starship’s hexagonal heat shields to determine if they would offer sufficient protection during re-entry. And now, in anticipation of the spacecraft’s eventual launch, SpaceX released an eye-popping new rendering of the Starship that shows what it would look like reentering Earth’s atmosphere.