SpaceX is getting ready to go to Mars. Sending humans to the red planet is the company’s ultimate goal, and this week it might be getting one step closer. According to reports, SpaceX might be planning to test their planet-hopping ‘Starship’ rocket very soon.
SpaceX’s Starship is a futuristic concept that Elon Musk has claimed could carry 100 people on an interplanetary flight. When it’s completed, it will be one of the largest rockets ever built, and could be the first spacecraft to bring humans to another planet.
But the Starship is still in its early stages, and before it brings anyone anywhere it has to be tested extensively. Since January, SpaceX has been ready for one of the more important of these tests: A prototype Starship will liftoff from a pad in Texas and travel several miles into the atmosphere. The launch will test everything from the engines to the heat shield to make sure the design is capable of everything Elon Musk envisions.
This test was supposed to happen in January, but a strong gust of wind knocked the rocket over when it was on the launchpad. That accident caused substantial damage to the rocket that has taken until now to repair. But according to a notice delivered to residents near the launchpad, those repairs are completed and SpaceX is looking to launch the rocket as soon as possible.
First (really short) hops with one engine. Suborbital flights with three.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 17, 2019
The Starship is tentatively expected to be finished testing and ready for commercial operations by 2023. Famously, SpaceX already has a customer for an around-the-moon flight as soon as the rocket is operational. However, that’s still several years away and the Starship is one of the most complicated rockets ever designed. It’s likely we haven’t seen the last of the program’s delays.
Originally posted on Popular Mechanics