SpaceX's giant Starship rocket will have its first big high-altitude test next week, says Elon Musk
SpaceX's Starship rocket is scheduled to have its first high-altitude flight test next week.
The spacecraft will fly 15 kilometres (50,000 feet) into the air. Previous prototypes have only made short hops of a few hundred metres.
CEO Elon Musk said there was a lot that could go wrong, and gave the rocket a 1-in-3 chance of landing in one piece.
Next week, Elon Musk's space-exploration company SpaceX will take a big step forward in its quest to fly people to Mars.
Musk tweeted on Tuesday that SpaceX's enormous Starship spacecraft – which the company eventually wants to use to get humans to Mars – will undergo its first high altitude test next week. This follows a successful test firing of the current prototype's engines on Tuesday.
According to Musk, in next week's test, the rocket will fly 15 km (50,000 feet) into the air. Previous prototypes have made short hops a few hundred meters into the air. This test flight will be a big step in testing whether the design can withstand the rigors of spaceflight.
Elon Musk said in a follow-up tweet on Wednesday that lots could go wrong in this first high-altitude test. "Lot of things need to go right," the billionaire said. When asked on Twitter what he thought the odds were of Starship landing in one piece, he answered "1-in-3."
There are also more prototypes lined up to be tested should this one fail.
SpaceX's Starship spacecraft is made up of two sections, the Super Heavy booster and the Starship rocket ship – which Musk claims will be able to carry 100 people to Mars at a time. The entire spacecraft stands at 120 metres (394 feet) tall.
There's no specific day confirmed for next week, and as TechCrunch notes, test dates are subject to change.
Read the original article on Business Insider