SpaceX Starship SN15 Conducts a Static Fire Test

After the company's first 'upgraded' concept aced a three-engine static fire test on the first attempt, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says the next Starship flight could happen "later this week."

Upgraded Starship prototype serial number 15 (SN15) - outfitted with "hundreds of upgrades" - fired up the three Raptor engines for a few seconds on Monday (April 26) at 5:57 p.m. EDT.

The rocket's engines, which were also modified, seemed to work normally. SpaceX ended the evening's testing a few hours early despite being significantly postponed from ambitious original target dates.

Around the same time SN15's first static fire attempt was winding down, SpaceX sent out safety alerts to Boca Chica Village residents. Elon Musk's company implied that a second static fire drill could be scheduled for Tuesday.

Musk did not discuss a second static fire, but he did suggest that the first test was good enough to enable Starship SN15 to launch in a matter of days.

Starship SN15 static fire completed, preparing for flight later this week
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 27, 2021

Space.com said the static fire occurred just three days after Crew- SpaceX's second successful crewed flight to the International Space Station for NASA - was launched. Four astronauts traveled to the orbital station in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, which took off on a Falcon 9 rocket on Friday (April 23) - a very different spaceflight device than Starship.

SpaceX Serial Number Series: What is SN15?

In less than five months, SN15 will be the fifth Starship concept to attempt this flight. The remaining four flew well until the very end when they all failed to stick the landing and disintegrated.

SpaceX is working on a spacecraft called Starship that will transport people and cargo to the moon, Mars, and other far-flung locations. The final configuration would include a 165-foot-tall (50-meter) spacecraft.

Teslarati said Starship SN15, like four other "high-altitude" flight tests before it, is scheduled to aim for a comparable apogee of 10-12 kilometers (6-8 miles). The flight test process would include a full ascent, balanced bellyflop, landing flip maneuver, and a soft touchdown.

Starships SN8 through SN11 attempted and failed to survive the challenge intact between December 2020 and April 2021. Prototype SN10 did manage to survive for about ten minutes on the ground before exploding due to its still-hard landing.

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The reasons for all four faults were different in the end. The Starship SN8 lost fuel tank control seconds before touchdown, starving its Raptors and suffering a near-total loss of thrust.

One of SN9's Raptors failed to fire during the landing fire, resulting in an even more violent collision with the ground.

The lone landing engine of the Starship SN10 underperformed as it started to absorb helium ullage gas - a quick-fix introduced after the pressurization problem on the SN8.

Since attempting to ignite its three engines for landing, SN11 exploded almost instantly, failing even sooner than its predecessors.

One of the four Starship designs barely missed a truly efficient and survivable landing in one of the four flight tests, providing SpaceX with a wealth of data and firsthand knowledge to develop the rocket's configuration and operations.

Two of the four crashes, SN9 and SN11, seem to result from one or more of the Starship's three Raptor engines failing. SpaceX has switched to an improved version of the next-generation engine, starting with Starship SN15.

They aim to boost expectations that any improvements the firm makes would increase stability and, therefore the chances of a successful high-altitude launch and landing flight.

NASA-SpaceX Partnership

NASA recently selected the company as the moon lander for its crewed Artemis program and a massive first-stage booster called Super Heavy.

Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, has stated that all components will be completely and quickly reusable, possibly lowering the cost of spaceflight significantly.

Musk said the starship and Super Heavy are expected to be operational shortly, who recently said that the final system would be fully operational by 2023.