Starhopper has made its final test flight Space X
Starhopper has hopped. On 27 August, SpaceX鈥檚 stubby spacecraft made its highest and longest flight yet from the firm鈥檚 Texas launchpad.
The spacecraft鈥檚 last test, in July, took it just about 18 metres in the air, but with this test it was planned to fly 150 metres up, hover, and move sideways before gently landing on nearby landing pad. SpaceX has not yet confirmed whether Starhopper reached the full 150 metre altitude, but the flight was clearly far higher than the previous test. It lasted nearly one minute from launch to landing.
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After the test flight, SpaceX CEO Musk tweeted 鈥渙ne day Starship will land on the rusty sands of Mars鈥. Starhopper is a prototype of SpaceX鈥檚 planned Starship spacecraft, which Musk has said the firm will use to send humans to Mars. Starship will be much larger than Starhopper, with six engines compared to the prototype鈥檚 single one.
This test was Starhopper鈥檚 last. Two teams in Texas and Florida are building bigger prototypes that are more similar to Starship, with three engines each and more robust landing gear. When those are finished, their test flights are planned to take them as high as 20 kilometres.
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