Rocket that doesn’t look like one — SpaceX fires up Starship prototype for a ‘hop’ in the sky

Starship prototype SN5 is part of SpaceX's plans to develop a deep-space rocket that can take off and land on surfaces like that on Moon and Mars.

Screengrab from the SpaceX hop test of the Starship SN5 | Twitter

Bengaluru: The prototype of SpaceX’s deep-space rocket Starship flew a short “hop” of 500 feet Tuesday. A hop is a controlled test of take off and landing of vehicles.

The 30m tall prototype, which looks like a canister, is powered by a one-rocket engine. Numbered ‘SN5’, this Starship prototype is different in shape from the final design.

The prototype rose up and managed to land back, with cameras on the rocket as well as on the ground recording impressive visuals of the feat.

Take a look:

Starship takes flight pic.twitter.com/IWvwcA05hl

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 5, 2020

The prototype was tested in south Texas, in SpaceX’s Boca Chica facility. This was the first Starship prototype to successfully fly and land after previous failed attempts.

The landing mechanism is similar to the company’s signature reusable rocket, the Falcon 9, in which the first stages of the rocket return to the launchpad after the second stage detaches in the launch. The second stage is what continues towards space.

A previous prototype, called the Starhopper, also had a successful test flight last year, although it looked different.

The engineering success comes just two days after SpaceX saw its crew on the Dragon spacecraft — NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley — return from the International Space Station. They splashed down into the Gulf of Mexico.

SpaceX designs for the Starship series

SpaceX has already created another prototype to test out, numbered SN6, and will likely fly that one during the next test flight. SN7 is under construction as well.

SpaceX also reportedly plans to create its own custom steel alloy, built specifically to suit the Starship. The alloy, 30X cold rolled steel, could be tested this month.

The SpaceX Starship will be a fully reusable super-heavy-lift launch vehicle. It is designed for landing on other worlds, including the Moon and Mars, and taking off from their surfaces. The final version of the rocket will be 400 feet high and 30 feet in diametre, and able to house over 100,000 kg of cargo, which it can fly to low Earth orbit.

It is also designed to be a long-duration cargo and passenger transport.

The spacecraft will be mounted on top of the booster of a giant rocket called Super Heavy, which will be powered by six of SpaceX’s Raptor engines. SpaceX is planning to be fully operational by the end of this year and launch commercial payloads on the rocket by the year 2021.