Jesse James
SpaceX continues to push the boundaries in space flight, and they are looking to turn it up a notch. On Tuesday, SpaceX celebrated a successful launch and mini-test flight of its Starship SN5 prototype. It all took place in Boca Chica, Texas, and came just two days after the Crew Dragon spacecraft came back to Earth safely with two astronauts.
The test flight saw the ship rise to around 150 meters before moving and landing on a designated landing pad. The structure is powered by a single Raptor engine, while fueled by liquid oxygen and high-energy methane propellant. The final rocket will be larger, standing at 394 feet tall and consist of two stages.
The rocket will have a reusable booster called the Super Heavy and an actual Starship on top. The final goal for the vessel is to reach Mars, carrying out multiple entries in the process. After the launch, CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter. He tweeted: “Mars is looking real,” adding that the next step is to do more “short hops” to smooth out the launch sequence.
Take a look at the test flight in the video below and find out more from SpaceX. While you’re at it, keep it locked with The Culture Curators for more space travel and SpaceX news coming soon.
