SpaceX fuels up and tests fully stacked Starship for first time, paving way for orbital flight soon.
SpaceX conducted its first ever fully stacked Starship test on Monday (Jan. 23), marking a major milestone in the vehicle’s journey to its debut orbital flight. The test at their Starbase facility in South Texas included loading liquid oxygen and liquid methane propellant into the vehicle’s Super Heavy first stage and Starship upper stage. This action was live-streamed by NASASpaceflight.com and captured by Rocket Ranch Boca Chica.
The success of Monday’s test keeps this Starship vehicle on track for an orbital test flight in the near future. This mission will send Ship 24 around Earth once, with a targeted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near Hawai’i. SpaceX will need to check some important boxes before this launch, such as de-stacking Starship to test-fire all 33 of Booster 7’s Raptor engines simultaneously.
SpaceX is developing Starship to get people and cargo to the moon, Mars and beyond. It was selected by NASA to be the first crewed lunar lander for its Artemis program, and Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa booked a round-the-moon flight on the vehicle. It will also launch the bulk of SpaceX’s Starlink 2.0 internet satellites and take over most of the company’s spaceflight duties in the future.
The most recent Starship test flight occurred in May 2021, sending a three-engine upper-stage prototype called SN15 about 6.2 miles into the skies above Starbase. This was the first to stick the landing. SpaceX has been ground-bound for nearly two years now and is determined to make Starship’s spaceflight future a success.
SpaceX’s first ever fully stacked Starship test was a major milestone in the vehicle’s journey to its debut orbital flight. The test included loading liquid oxygen and liquid methane propellant into the vehicle and was live-streamed. The success of Monday’s test keeps the Starship vehicle on track for an orbital test flight, which will send Ship 24 around Earth once. SpaceX is developing Starship to get people and cargo to the moon, Mars and beyond, and it was selected by NASA to be the first crewed lunar lander. The most recent Starship test flight occurred in May 2021, sending a three-engine upper-stage prototype called SN15 about 6.2 miles into the skies above Starbase. SpaceX has been ground-bound for nearly two years now and is determined to make Starship’s spaceflight future a success.
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