SpaceX fires Starship spacecraft ahead of 5th test flight (photos, video)

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SpaceX recently fired up the engines of its newest Starship spacecraft to prepare for an upcoming test flight, which could take place in just a few weeks.

The company carried out a “static fire” with the 165-foot-tall (50-meter) cannon Starship upper stage on Friday afternoon (July 26) at its Starbase facility near the South Texas city of Brownsville. We got a glimpse of the action, thanks to Photos it is a video which SpaceX posted on X on Saturday (July 27).

Static fires – in which engines are briefly ignited while a vehicle remains docked on a launch or test pad – are a common pre-launch test. AND EspaçoX is in fact preparing for a Starship flight; conducted a static fire with this spacecraft’s first stage companion on July 15.

It’s unclear when exactly Flight 5 will take off. On July 5, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said Starship will fly again “in four weeks,” which suggests a target date of next Friday (August 2) or thereabouts. But the company is apparently now targeting late August or early September, according to media reports.

Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built: fully stacked, the vehicle is almost 122 meters tall. Both of its stages – the spacecraft, known as Starship or simply “Ship”, and the booster, called Super Heavy – are designed to be fully and quickly reusable.

SpaceX believes Starship’s combination of power and reusability will be revolutionary, making colonization of the Moon and Mars economically viable. NASA is on board; the agency chose Starship to be the first manned lander for its Artemis Program of lunar exploration.

Related: SpaceX tests Super Heavy Starship booster before 5th flight (video)

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Starship’s four test flights to date have taken place in April 2023, November 2023, and March and June of this year. The vehicle performed better on each successive flight. In the most recent mission, for example, Ship reached space and survived the return journey through Earth’s atmosphere, and Super Heavy reached its crash target in the Gulf of Mexico.

Apparently, Flight 5 will aim to open a new path for the big boost. Musk said the company wants to catch the returning Super Heavy with the “chopstick” arms of Starbase’s gigantic launch tower, a strategy that will allow for faster inspection, refurbishment and relocation of the vehicle going forward.