Watch SpaceX Starship prototype fly hundreds of feet for the first time

Nearly a calendar year right after we noticed SpaceX’s ‘Starhopper’ examination motor vehicle make a short excursion into the air, the enterprise has effectively flown and landed a total-dimension Starship prototype. The SN5 motor vehicle is missing its nose cone, so it is a little bit like a taller “flying h2o tower” just like the previously examination rig, but it went up and down from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, TX launch pad all the identical.

You can look at the NASASpaceflight YouTube stream that captured the party (start off at about 1:fourteen), and see the solitary Raptor engine-driven hop, that took SN5 about a hundred and fifty meters into the air. According to Elon Musk, the next steps include things like quite a few a lot more short hops ahead of heading “high altitude” with human body flaps connected. That helps make SpaceX two for two on the 7 days, right after properly returning two astronauts from the ISS aboard its Crew Dragon motor vehicle, and is a notable phase forward for reusable spacecraft.