Elon Musk's SpaceX Orbital Stack to Roll Its 1st Orbital Test Flight 'In a Few Weeks'

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that his team already built the first orbital Starship prototype. He added that the world's most giant rocket yet might be ready to launch unexpectedly soon.

His announcements mark a significant step toward realizing his interplanetary space aspirations. Booster 4, the organization's new Super Heavy Booster prototype, was successfully placed at the launch site. According to sources, the new prototype SN15 is built on a reusable heavy-lift rocket that could bring goods and humans to other planets.

Space Booster Rolls Down on Highway 4

The SpaceX CEO revealed some events from the Spacecraft's assembly since August 4 in a series of Twitter threads. The team connected the Booster to the huge LR11350 crane in the first photo. The orbital tower and a full-scale Starship were stacked using the crane (Super Heavy Booster & Ship). Following that, the Booster 4 was lifted onto the new Orbital Launch Mount, finished a few days before this event. Take a peek at how it's done.

Musk posted additional images on August 5 of a Raptor engine with a combination of black and white nozzles. The mixture of black and white showed that the engines had not been tested before being transported to the Spacebase. According to sources, Musk said that the currently constructed Ship 20 received new engines, including three sea-level Raptor engines and three RVac engines. Consider how the rocket was transported to the orbital launchpad:

The installation of the heatshield tile, which covers the major parts of the tanks, was completed on August 6 by SpaceX workers. The tiles are required for Ship 20 since it will complete a full orbit around the Earth before landing in the Pacific Ocean for a splashdown touchdown. Ship 20 was mounted atop the Super Heavy Booster on August 6, bringing Musk's year-long ambition of building the first-ever full-stack Starship to fruition.

The maiden launch of Ship 20 is expected towards the end of 2020. Musk plans to travel to space by the end of 2023 as a result of this. Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire entrepreneur, will be on board for the journey.

World's Largest Spaceship Launching Soon!

Meanwhile, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter on Saturday that SpaceX's Starship vehicle's first-ever prototype should fly on an orbital test flight "in a few weeks."

Given that SpaceX has yet to put the 395-foot-tall (120-meter) rocket through its regular battery of pre-flight testing, Space.com said that the deadline appears to be approaching quickly. There's also a significant logistical challenge to overcome: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States is undertaking an environmental evaluation of SpaceX's orbital launch pad in South Texas, where Starship will take off.

The FAA has yet to disclose its draft review, but it will take public comments on it for 30 days after it is published. So Starship's orbital journey is unlikely to happen in the next several weeks, as Musk admitted in a Saturday tweet that said the phrase "pending regulatory approval."

Musk's remark may have been intended to put some pressure on the FAA to speed things up. After all, he has already expressed dissatisfaction with FAA restrictions, stating that such laws must be simplified if mankind is to reach game-changing launch frequencies.

Starship, meanwhile, could be a game-changer for SpaceX. The vehicle, which consists of a massive first-stage rocket dubbed Super Heavy and a spaceship named Starship, is intended to transport people and goods to the moon, Mars, and other far-flung locations.

Check out more news and information on SpaceX in Science Times.